Thicker Than Water
by rangergoodall
Summary: Emma is forced to re-evaluate her priorities and the value of family after shocking events change everything she once knew. Nobody really knows what goes on behind closed doors. She has to fight to save the planet, and she has to fight to save her family. As the saying goes, blood is thicker than water.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This story is highly inspired by Lily Hanson and JustJustine014. I feel there aren't enough Emma-centric stories, so I wanted to try my hand. It's my first piece, so reviews would be appreciated :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Power Rangers or any of the characters used in this story.**

**Trigger Warning: Abuse. This deals with Emma's experience with abuse, so the trigger warning should be heeded for the entirety of the story. Please do not read if it will hurt or trigger you. **

Emma pedaled as fast as her legs would allow. Her right leg was throbbing, but she had to push through the pain. She found herself riding towards Gia's house on autopilot, but upon realizing the implications, she swerved and headed straight for the forest. Her backpack felt extra heavy with the knowledge that she would never be returning home again. Emma had grabbed some school supplies, canned food, and all the clothes she could carry before she grabbed her bike and escaped.

All of the emotions bubbling inside her caused her to pedal harder.

She couldn't think of anyone who could help her. Emma didn't want to burden her team with everything going on at home, and certainly did not want that taking priority over their jobs of saving the world. She especially couldn't tell Gia. They were sisters and shared everything with each other.

Everything but this.

Emma had deeply considered telling her best friend a couple times when things got bad, but couldn't bring herself to involve Gia or even potentially hurt her. Emma's mom hadn't been in the country for nine years and she was left with no support system.

She pedaled out to the woods and stopped once she reached an empty field. Usually, singing to the flowers brought her comfort, but today, even that couldn't console her. Emma had been trying to stay strong throughout the whole ordeal, but she couldn't hold it in anymore. She set down her camping gear and bag, and tucked her head into her knees.

And she cried.

Hours later, Emma woke to the feeling of the bitter cold on her skin. She had fallen asleep after all the exhaustion of the day's events and hadn't realized how cold it would get. She quickly retrieved her denim jacket from her bag and threw it on, checking the time. Upon seeing it was 9 at night, she decided to pitch her tent. Emma knew she wouldn't be able to live in the forest forever, but it was her last semester of high school. The rangers would all be graduating in June and it was January. She felt confident she could make it for five months on her own.

No landlord in their right mind would ever let a 17 year-old girl get an apartment in their building unsupervised, so that was out of the question. She had to wait until she turned 18, which also happened to be in June. All Emma had to do was make it 5 months. She had packed enough money from home to provide food for the time being, especially since the lunches at the cafeteria only cost $3. Even if she did end up in a pinch for money, Emma was confident Ernie would give her a job.

The Pink Ranger knew she could do it. She had been thinking about running away for a while, and subconsciously brewed up a plan on how she would survive if she did. Now that Emma had actually left, she found herself better prepared than she thought she would be. Ideally, she would report her father to Child Protective Services, but since she was still a minor, that means there was a high likelihood she'd be taken away and moved into a foster home. She simply couldn't afford to leave her friends behind, and most certainly could not relocate in the middle of being a power ranger.

Needless to say, Emma had been dealt an extremely bad hand in this circumstance.

She knew she needed to keep up appearances at school, and especially to her friends and teammates. If they caught wind something was going on at home, Emma's father would surely be reported and everything would spiral. Emma couldn't let anything interfere with her top priority, which was saving the planet. Because of her need to avert suspicion, she decided she needed to go to school and thus got ready to do so. She knew if she was going to function normally after the ordeal of this day, she would need to sleep. And real sleep. Not the I'm Exhausted From Crying kind of sleep. There was a pond in a nearby clearing which she could use to brush her teeth and wash her face, after purifying the water by boiling it. Then in the mornings, she would head to school a half hour early so no one would see her, and take care of her hygiene using the school bathrooms.

Emma also had a gym membership, and could use their showers whenever she needed.

She would be fine.

The following morning, Emma woke up to a beautiful sunrise, and groaned as she checked her watch. She still had two hours before school started, so decided to do some reading. All she wanted to do was break down, but she knew it wouldn't help anyone in the long run. If she was going to keep up the ruse for the next five months, she needed to keep up her grades. Most importantly, if she ever hoped to graduate, she needed to get her marks up. Between her situation at home and being a power ranger, Emma's grades had taken a serious hit.

Once she got caught up on her book, she knew it was time to leave her makeshift home. She packed everything together into her tent, cleaned herself up, and headed off. Three times on the bike ride over, she became nervous that she wouldn't hold up to her peers' scrutiny. She felt overwhelmed and anxious, knowing she was going to have to put on one hell of a show in order to stay in the clear.

She chained her bike and headed straight for the school's locker room to brush her teeth and wash her face. By the time she got herself to look presentable, most of the students had begun to filter in. Emma saw Gia down the hall and quickly plastered a smile onto her face.

"Hey, Emma! We missed you at the Brainfreeze yesterday. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry. I was just catching up on some work. The mutant battle took up way too much of my time and I was already falling behind."

Gia frowned. "You can always ask me for help. You know that."

Emma shifted uncomfortably. "Seriously, it's no problem. I woke up early and got more of the reading done, so I'm on track now. I'll figure it out, it's fine."

Her best friend stared at her, but eventually relented. She gave Emma a hug before they departed to Mr. Burley's class together. On the way, someone skateboarding down the hall accidentally tripped and fell straight into Emma. They both took a hard fall to the floor, and he immediately checked to see if Emma was okay. Gia helped her up as she stared daggers into the kid, who upon seeing Gia's expression, apologized profusely.

Before she decided on whether or not to kill him, he darted away down the hall. Gia looked her best friend up and down.

"Are you okay? That was a really hard fall."

Emma winced as her previously injured leg had been hurt in the crash. "My leg is a little hurt, but it's nothing I can't handle. Let's just go to class."

So, Emma continued for the rest of the day without arousing anymore suspicion. She had a slight limp from the previous day's events, but was able to explain it away conveniently with the skateboard collision from earlier. No one seemed to suspect anything from her, and her plan seemed to be working. If Gia and the rangers couldn't pick up that anything was wrong, Emma was sure she was convincing her teachers and other peers. As soon as she sat down for lunch, they all heard their morphers beep.

Jake groaned, still sore from the previous day's battle. "Does Vrak ever take vacations?"

Noah smacked him on the side of the head, and the five ran out of the cafeteria, much to the stares of their fellow classmates.

Upon arriving to the scene, Troy immediately knew something was off. Vrak was by himself, standing with no insect monster to back him up. Not even so much as a single Loogie was waiting for them. They all hesitated upon seeing Vrak alone, because it's not something he generally made a habit of doing, and he pressed the advantage by firing on them. The rangers all morphed as they dove out of the way.

The boys summoned their weapons and chased after Vrak, while the girls tried to get the screaming civilians to safety. In his attempts to cause as much havoc as he could, Vrak began firing on the retreating civilians. Gia and Emma did a good job getting them to safety though, and no one was hit. Once everyone was clear, Vrak surveyed the scene and turned his sights to see one lone boy hiding behind a trash can in the otherwise empty battlefield.

Emma saw Vrak switch focus and immediately followed his gaze. Gia was on the complete opposite side of the plaza, so Emma started running for the boy. Jake and Noah had already been incapacitated from trying to fight Vrak, but Troy chased after him. The boy was too shocked and fearful to move, so he watched with wide eyes as two power rangers and a monster converged on him.

In a last ditch attempt to reach the kid before Vrak, Troy dove from behind and tackled him to the floor. Having been bought only seconds of time, Emma ran straight for the boy. As soon as she got close enough, she froze.

Everything in the world stopped in that moment.

She knew the boy. Before sending him away for good, Emma had taken great care to memorize every last detail of his face. Because she had once loved the 15 year-old boy staring at her with wide eyes.

There before her, stood her little brother.


	2. Chapter 2

Her breath caught in her throat. She whispered. "Gavin?"

The boy looked shocked and completely caught off guard that the pink power ranger knew his name. He had just flown into the country two hours ago in search of his sister, and instead found himself right in the middle of a monster attack. One where a power ranger knew his name. In a city he hadn't been in for the past decade. He nodded tentatively as he stared, trying to make sense of everything.

Before Emma could say anything else, she heard Troy grunt as Vrak kicked him to the floor. Vrak then pointed his blaster at the little boy, whom she had loved with every last ounce of her being. The boy she was forced to leave behind.

She didn't even think twice.

Emma dove right for Gavin and pushed him out of the way as the blast came. Instead of him, it was her that took the hit. She flew backwards from the sheer power of the weapon. It was a pain she had never known before. As she rolled to a stop, she powered down, and could hear Gavin screaming in horror at what he was witnessing. That was the last thing in her awareness before she passed out from the pain.

By this time, the other boys and Gia had finally recovered their wits and ran to the scene. After seeing what Vrak had done to Emma, Gia charged straight for him and attacked with a fury that no one had ever seen. The other boys jumped in with her and yelled at Gavin to run.

So he ran. Just not away from the scene. Instead, he sprinted to go check on the stranger who had risked her life for him. But when he reached the powered down girl who was bleeding profusely, he didn't find a stranger.

At that moment, the world as he knew it collapsed right in front of him. "Emma..."

The four remaining rangers had pulled out an untapped inner strength upon seeing Emma so badly hurt, and managed to do enough damage to run Vrak off. He teleported back to the Warstar, leaving the rangers to deal with the aftermath of the attack. They all immediately turned and started to run for Emma. They had expected the kid to be gone by now, but instead he sat by Emma crying, trying to shake her awake.

Gia had half a mind to drop-kick him straight out of the plaza for not running sooner and endangering everyone's lives. As she marched over to do just that, she stopped in her tracks. She could hear the boy gasping Emma's name between sobs, and saw the way he was holding her, rocking her body. At the same time, all four of them came to the conclusion that he was not just some stranger. The rangers approached gently, trying not to startle him.

Troy spoke first. "Hey, bud. That's our friend right there. She took a really hard hit, and she's losing too much blood. We need to get her help, but you're going to have to let go of her. Do you know her?"

Gavin nodded his head, still refusing to let go. He had his hands on his wound, but Emma's blood was still leaking through. He was clearly traumatized and shaking severely. In between hiccups, he stuttered. "Her name is Emma... But why- is she bleeding? Isn't... the suit supposed to p-protect her?"

Noah had been wondering the same thing since he had witnessed the power of the blast. None of them had ever been hit by something that strong. Even Creepox hadn't hurt Jake and Gia this bad with his Meteor Shot. "It must be a new weapon he's developing. That's why he came out here by himself. He wanted to test it on the civilians and didn't want any monsters to intervene or skew his results. We stopped him on time..." He looked sadly down at his fallen friend. "But not soon enough."

Gia knelt down by the boy, keeping her eyes trained on Emma's body. "Listen, I'm sure you know her and care about her and that's why you're sitting here crying. You didn't know she's a ranger and you're in shock. But we seriously need to get her medical attention if she's going to survive. We need you to let go."

Gavin shook his head. "Wherever you're taking her, I'm coming with. She's not going anywhere without me."

The rangers needed to take her to the command center, and desperately needed to power down, so that wasn't an option. They needed to get rid of him. Jake lay his hand on the boy's shoulder. "You can't come with us where we're going. Please, we'll save her."

Gavin tightened his grasp on Emma. "No! Do you hear me? You're not going to take my sister away from me. Not again."

The four rangers stopped in their tracks. The second she heard the word sister come out of his mouth, Gia looked at the kid properly for the first time, and immediately saw a striking resemblance to her best friend. She didn't know how she didn't see it before. Troy apparently saw it too, because before anyone could say anything, he teleported everyone to the Command Center.


	3. Chapter 3

As soon as they arrived in the Command Center, Tensou immediately rolled over to examine Emma. He asked Gavin to help carry her to an adjacent room and lay her down on a medical bed so he could work. The little robot turned to the boy. "If you want me to work and save her, you're going to have to leave. You know she's safe now, she's in Ranger Command. I won't even touch her unless you leave the room."

Gavin reluctantly nodded, knowing she was going to get proper medical care now. He stumbled out of the room, still partially in shock. He was trying to process everything that had happened in the last hour and he was wildly unsuccessful. The rangers knew he was who he said he was the second they caught a proper glimpse of his face. He and Emma were almost identical. But before they powered down in front of him, they needed to be sure.

Gia walked over. "I know you said you're her brother, but I have to ask before we all reveal our identities to you. If you really are who you say you are, you'll know." Gavin understood their hesitation, and agreed.

"When's her birthday?"

"June 17th."

"Middle name?"

"Anne."

"Father's name?"

"Benjamin Goodall."

Gia shook her head sadly and powered down. The rest of the rangers assumed this meant he got all the questions right and followed suit. Gia was still shaking in denial. "We've been best friends for the past decade. Ten years we've been best friends. We don't keep things from each other. Ever. Least of all, a hidden sibling..."

Gavin nodded. "It's complicated. We don't talk about each other. We're not allowed. I would explain, but I can't. Even though you know who I am, I don't know any of you. I don't trust any of you. I haven't seen her since I was 6, and the first thing you guys tried to do was separate us again. I understand why you did it, but I am not going to reveal anything from our past until she wakes up. I owe everything to her, and I'm not going to be the one who spills."

The four rangers nodded in agreement and pointed to a small nearby bedroom. They used it sometimes after late night battles, when they didn't want to sneak back into their houses in the middle of the night and explain to their parents what they were doing. It was better to just sleep in the Command Center and tell their parents they had all been at someone else's house at a sleepover. The girls shared one room, and the boys shared another. Gavin was shown into the boys' room and told he could wait there until there was an update on Emma's condition.

After closing the door to give him some privacy to process everything, they all turned to each other and also tried to process what was happening. Out of all the others, Gia's shock was evident in every feature of her body. Her entire posture was rigid and her face looked stricken. The boys all tried to comfort her, but they weren't doing much of a good job, since they were still in shock themselves.

They all silently headed towards Emma's room and walked in. Tensou looked over, prepared to demand for Gavin to leave again, but relaxed when he saw it was the rangers. He looked down in shame. "I'm sorry I was mean to the boy. I just needed him to understand that if he kept pulling what he did out in the plaza, she would die. I have her stabilized now and treated her burns. Some of them were really bad, and I can't really do anything for them except wait and wrap them to prevent infection. She has a large wound in her abdomen, which is why she kept losing so much blood. The blast from Vrak's new weapon tore right through the suit. I don't know how he's done it, but he's found a way to hurt you even through the suits. I ran some X-rays and found her right leg has been dislocated, but the scans indicate it's been like that since before the fight. I'm surprised you all didn't notice her limping..."

Gia shook her head. "Some asshole ran into her this morning on his skateboard and they took a hard fall. She told me she was fine, but now, I'm having a hard time believing anything she tells me. Everything that came out of her mouth the last ten years has all been lies."

Tensou did his best impression of a sigh. "Don't assume the worst. At least, not yet. We don't know the full story, and we don't get to make any judgements until we do." He turned back to the X-rays. "The scans also show she's had a broken collarbone, fractured wrist, cracked ribs, and a slew of other injuries that were never treated properly. They healed incorrectly over the years, and now her bones have improperly fused together. I don't know what's been going on with her, but these injuries were here way before your ranger duties started. This could be just her love for BMX, but I don't think that's a safe assumption to make. We'll have to talk to her more when she wakes up. The minute she starts to feel stronger, I'm going to sedate her and perform corrective surgery. The longer her bones stay healed this way, the more danger she poses to herself, especially as a ranger where she's going to have to take hits in battle."

Upon hearing the news, everyone connected the dots. Why they had never been over to her house. Her secret little brother that not even Gia knew about. The constant need for her to avert attention from herself. The scans were confirmation of what they suspected. When Emma woke up, she'd need a lot more help than just physical.


	4. Chapter 4

After putting the pieces together and figuring out what her friend had been going through for who knows how long, Gia pulled up a chair next to Emma's bedside and held her hand. The boys left to give them privacy, and Tensou went to give Gavin an update. Gia looked at the pale and beaten face of her best friend, and her eyes welled up in tears. She had known Emma forever, and they were so close. Gia was supposed to be the tough one and make Emma feel safe. She was supposed to protect her friend and had failed on every occasion to do so. All this time, it had been Emma protecting her.

Gia laid her head down on Emma's bed and let the tears flow freely. She felt guilt like she had never known before. Her friend was hurting and had been suffering, and Gia didn't know anything about it. She hadn't helped her. She felt that maybe if she had asked more questions, checked on her more frequently, done anything at all... Things could have been different. She felt guilty for everytime she complained about her parents interrogating her after coming back late from a fight, knowing now that Emma had it so much worse.

Most of all, her heart broke for her best friend. She knew exactly why Emma refused to tell her about what was going on. Not only was she protecting Gia, but she was forced into these circumstances by her ranger duties. If she reported her father, Emma would be taken away and wouldn't be available to help the team. She was forced to suffer in silence and suffer alone, without even a choice. She was forced to put everything else aside in order to fight for the planet, and probably wasn't even able to deal with her own pain because she was so busy prioritizing something else.

In that moment, Gia had never hated anyone more than Gosei. He forced them all into this life that they didn't ask for, and it had screwed with all of them. But knowing what she did now about Emma, it made Gosei seem so much worse. She had half a mind to grow throw her morpher straight into a volcano, and contemplated making good on the threat, but was interrupted by a knocking on the door.

She called out, unwilling to stand up. "Go away, guys. I want to be alone with her." It was part of the truth, but she also didn't want the boys to see her like this. She was subconsciously afraid that maybe they agreed with her assessment of the situation. Maybe they blamed her too for not realizing it sooner. None of them were even half as close with Emma as Gia. She was too afraid to face them.

But, it wasn't one of the boys who called back. She could hear Gavin's voice through the door. "Tensou updated me on her situation. I hear she's been stabilized. I just wanted to see her. In case something happens, I don't want the last thing I remember to be..." He trailed off.

Gia slowly stood and opened the door for him. He came in and froze when he saw his sister. She had tubes going down her throat to help her breathe, and she had tons of different drips hooked up to her. He had never seen her so pale and bruised before, and he felt so guilty to be the cause of it.

The yellow ranger knew exactly how he was feeling. It was the same reaction she had when she was left alone with her best friend. It was almost too much for her to bear. She stood by the door and made to leave. "I'm going to give you two some space. Just yell if you need me."

Before she was able to leave, Gavin stopped her. "You can stay... You should stay." Gia was going to insist on leaving them alone, but she took one look at his face and decided against it. She was besides herself with guilt, but she could see the same exact emotions written all over the boy's face. Neither of them should be alone. She turned and as she prepared to pull up another chair, Emma's hand moved.


	5. Chapter 5

Gia yelled for the boys and Tensou as soon as Emma started to wake up. After hearing her screams, they all rushed in, assuming the worst. Tensou was happily surprised and pleased to find she was already showing signs of recovery. He assumed it would be days before she even so much as twitched, let alone completely regained awareness. He extubated her and redressed her wounds, then left everyone to their own devices, knowing they were going to need to have a serious conversation.

Emma groaned as she tried to speak, but her voice came out as a mix between a rasp and a whimper. Gia ran straight for the water and gave it to her in small bits. Emma's voice started to come back and she immediately turned her focus to Gia. "Gavin... The boy. Is he okay? Was he able to get away in time?"

Gavin cleared his throat and stepped out from behind Gia. "Yeah, thanks to you. I should be the one asking if you're okay."

Emma's eyes welled up seeing her little brother in the flesh for the first time since she could remember. It's the reaction she wanted to have in the plaza, but couldn't because of the circumstances. Gavin walked over and the two siblings shared a tearful embrace.

Gia gave her best friend's hand a squeeze before she and the rest of the rangers left. They had wanted to stay and talk about everything, but they couldn't bring themselves to intrude upon the long-awaited reunion between the two siblings. It felt wrong to stay in there and watch.

After some time, Gavin came out to come get the rest of the team. "She wants to talk to you."

Everybody slowly filtered back into the room and the rangers crowded her bedside. Troy looked down at the pink ranger softly. "How are you feeling?"

Emma shrugged. "I've had better days. I've had worse too, so it's not all that bad." The rangers heard that and went silent, knowing exactly what she was referring to. Emma noticed their reactions and spoke. "So I guess we should address the elephant in the room... Yes, Gavin's my brother." With that, she launched into the story. She told the rangers everything, knowing it was useless to try and hide it. Gavin had told her about the findings from Tensou's X-rays. She knew the rangers knew. Emma wanted to do a million different things while trying to recount the story, chief among them being to throw up and start crying, but she resisted the urge. She didn't want it to drag it out any longer than it already had.

Ben Goodall had been a good man, and an even better father. When Emma was born, he and Olivia Goodall took such great care of her. He was a model dad for the first two years of her existence... But that's as far as that went. When her little brother Gavin had been born, everything in her life changed. 0.23% of babies are diagnosed with cancer each year and unfortunately for the Goodall family, Gavin was one of those babies. A less than 1% chance. A couple months into his infancy, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

At first, things were fine. Ben wanted treatment for his son and took him to see doctors for constant checkups and prognoses. But after a couple years of constantly sending your child to see specialists, surgeons, and pediatricians, it really takes a toll on the family fund. Gavin's treatment was bankrupting the Goodall family. They were forced to sell their house for a smaller one, and took a drastic reduction in the quality of life in order to be able to afford Gavin's radiation treatments and doctor visits.

Before long, they were out of excess money and Olivia had to start working. Even that wasn't enough to supply the family with enough money. Gavin was sucking them dry, and they also had to clothe and feed Emma. Because of the circumstances, Ben was forced to quit his job. He had been passionate about teaching and work, but was forced to trade it in for a cubical that would pay more. The first night he came back from his new job was the first night things started going downhill. He was in an unprecedented bad mood from the minute he walked into the house. He was bitter that his son had forced him to give up the job he was passionate about.

The family was already short on money, so when Emma accidentally dropped a day's worth of food on the floor, he snapped. Olivia was upstairs tending to Gavin, and he was fed up with the family's incompetence. He hit Emma so hard across the cheek that she fell to the floor. He kicked her in the ribs and rolled her over to the food she had spilled. He spit on her and forced her face into the food's remains. Emma was only six at the time. Olivia heard Emma's cries and ran downstairs. She tried to intervene, and that's when Ben hit her for the first time.

From then on, it was a lost cause. Every night when he came home from work, Ben would get drunk. He'd unleash all of his frustrations on his wife and kids. He often beat Emma and when Olivia tried to stop him, she'd get hit too. So eventually, she stopped trying. She felt bad for leaving her daughter at the mercy of her husband, but didn't want to risk the rage spreading to Gavin. Especially with his tumor, if Gavin got hit in the head, there would be severe consequences. She would always go to Emma's room after she ran away from her father, and try to console her.

One thing she said always rang through Emma's head. _You are so brave, Emma. Please, know that you are. I love you. Gavin needs you, and I need you. I'm so sorry about everything. You are a good daughter... The best. It's not your fault, okay? Gavin... He needs you to be strong. Can you do that for me? Can you be strong? He needs you to be a good sister and protect him. You'll always protect him. I know you will._

Emma wanted so badly to blame her mom. She was seven, but she was smart. And as twisted as it was, Emma understood. Her mom was being selfish not doing anything to help her kids, but Emma somehow understood. So she took her mom's words to heart. And she protected Gavin with every inch of her heart. Anytime he'd mess up and her father would find out, Emma would take the blame. She made sure her father never touched him. If that meant she had to take it instead, she was more than willing to do it. She knew her brother was really sick, even at a young age, and she loved him.

So, Emma understood her mom. They both wanted to protect Gavin. And since Olivia was the only person who knew how to take care of him, she couldn't risk getting hurt or angering Ben. She couldn't step in her for other kid. But on Emma's eighth birthday, it was the last straw.

Ben had gotten so pissed that he kicked Emma in the chest and broke her collarbone. It had never gone this far, and Ben panicked. He knew if it was not treated properly, people would ask questions and he could get into serious trouble with the law. He threatened Emma and Olivia not to spill, and then took Emma to the ER. While he stayed with her playing the part of a worried father, Olivia had gone back home and packed what she could. She threw it all into the car and waited for Emma to get home. She wanted to take the kids and get away as far as possible.

But when Ben got back later that night, he saw all the bags and he couldn't believe it. Olivia became victim to a brutal attack, and in her hysteria, she told Ben that she was leaving and she was taking the kids with her. By that point, Olivia had quit her job to take care of Gavin. Since they couldn't afford around-the-clock care and the amount of doctors appointments he needed, she was forced to stay at home and take care of him. If it came to a custody battle, Ben would win. She didn't have the means to pay for a good lawyer, and there was no chance in hell she was letting Ben keep both of her kids.

Eventually, the standoff ended. After much begging from Olivia's part, Ben had told her to take one kid and just get out of the house. To leave for good and never come back. She argued that if she took Gavin, then Ben would have to stop paying all the bills. That's what sold him. He told her to take Gavin and leave before he changed his mind, and Olivia didn't ask twice. She ran up to Emma's bedroom and hugged her daughter, with an emotion much stronger than simple relief. To Emma, it felt like a goodbye. She knew it was serious.

"Emma, honey. I love you. I'm so sorry about everything. If I could fix it, I would. But there's nothing I can do. I have no options left, and Gavin has no options left. I know how much you care about your baby brother... Your father told me to leave. I have a friend in Paris who said she can get me a job. It'll be enough to pay for Gavin's medical bills. And she says we can stay at her place until I get on my feet. I need to go."

Emma nodded, still hazy from having been on painkillers in the ER. "We should go. Before he changes his mind."

Olivia held her daughter's hand and squeezed as tears fell down her face. "He said I could only take one of you. Emma..."

Her daughter looked her right in the eyes. "It's okay, mom. I know what you have to do. We both do. Take him. You have to take him and go. I understand. Don't worry about me, okay?"

Her mother started sobbing, unable to fathom how they had ended up in this situation. "Oh, Em... When did you get so grown up?"

Emma smiled weakly. "It's my eighth birthday today, mom. I'm a big girl now. So don't worry and go. Take care of him. When I'm 18, I can visit. Or maybe you can visit. I don't know yet. But you always told me to be a good big sister and to protect Gavin. This is how I'm going to. He'll be safe with you. It's okay."

Emma's mother couldn't bring herself to say anything. All she could do was force out a whisper as she dropped to her knees and hugged her daughter for the last time. "I love you, baby girl. I'll see you again. Okay? I promise." She kissed her daughter on the forehead and before she could change her mind, she grabbed Gavin from his bed and ran to the car. Everything had been packed into the trunk earlier when she was preparing to leave. She strapped him into the back, and drove away like a madwoman. Emma watched the car pull out of the driveway.

She was crying, but she still managed a small smile, knowing her little brother would finally be safe.


	6. Chapter 6

After Emma's mother and Gavin had left, things at home calmed down. Emma was nine now, and Ben didn't have to pay all those bills anymore. Emma had met a new friend who kept her out of the house most nights. They had sleepovers, ate dinner together, and best of all, never bothered him. He was able to get his old job back and they moved back into their old house. Teaching did not pay that much, but not having to pay Gavin's medical bills for the first time in seven years left him with what felt like money rolling in the bank. But as Emma would soon learn, good things never last for her.

One day, Emma sprained her wrist while she was out riding her bike with Gia, and Ben was forced to take her to the ER.

While they were there, they performed X-rays and found some suspicious wounds that had not healed over properly. Emma was going to say something to the doctor, but Ben was able to make up a lie about BMX that got the doctors off his back. When they got home, Ben was upset that he almost got caught. As the saying goes, old habits die hard. He started drinking again, and threatened Emma not to tell anyone that happened. He told her that if she let even one inkling slip that something was wrong at home, he'd sue Olivia for "kidnapping his child across the globe" and take back custody of Gavin. So, Emma shut her mouth.

She started becoming closer with Gia and her family. Without a mom at home, Emma didn't know all the things things she should. Gia's mom, Jenna, was the one who first explained menstruation to Emma, and she brought Emma along during Gia's first trip to the mall for bras. She gave the girls joint makeup lessons, and taught Emma everything that her mother should have taught her. Gia's father, Jack, did his best to accommodate the girls when they wanted to have sleepovers and dinners. On days he knew Emma would be coming over, he would go the store beforehand and buy vegetarian food so she could have options.

He taught her how to throw a football, threatened the boys she talked to, and did all the things a father should do. Of course, they questioned what was going on with Emma's home situation. But the first time they asked about her mother, Emma became too emotional and started crying, so they decided not to pry. They assumed her mother had died and that's why she didn't like spending time at home with all those reminders of her. They practically provided a cover story for her, so Emma went with it. She became so good at lying that she'd always be able to come up with reasons why Gia couldn't come over, and why the Morans couldn't meet her father.

The Morans left it alone. They figured that she was having a tough time emotionally, and just wanted to be there for the girls. They opened their house to Emma and welcomed her readily. Whenever Emma wouldn't spend the night and she'd be at home, Ben would always beat her to remind her never to tell anyone about the abuse and especially about Gavin. Emma learned to keep Gavin a secret, and as many times as she wished she could tell Gia, she knew better.

Things started looking up again for Emma. She barely spent any time at home, and when she did, she would lock herself in her room. If her dad got to her before she could hide, she had learned how to block out the pain. She often had to hide injuries at school, but she wore long sleeves to cover it up and just acted like she got cold easily. She had been made into a master liar, so no one even questioned it for a second.

Then, she became a power ranger. She would start coming home late, with unexplained injuries, and hung out more often with the team and with the boys. Her father did not take too kindly to the circumstances. One particularly bad day, Emma came home limping having been hurt from a battle and found a woman making out with Ben on the couch. She was mortified, especially because that was the same day her mother had officially mailed home the divorce papers. They had decided to temporarily put aside their differences so they could figure out the divorce, and the second it was finalized, Ben attached himself to a new woman.

Emma was disgusted and when she said something about it to her father, he hit her. She learned not to say anything about Sharon. The moment she brought up her dad's relationship with Sharon, it would be over for Emma.

The Pink Ranger wrapped up the story and all eyes were on her in the Command Center. No one could believe what they had just heard. Gia had a particularly hard time with it all and was crying, feeling so many different emotions for her friend.

"That brings us to yesterday. My dad just announced he and Sharon were getting married, and that she is pregnant. He got a job in Chicago and is leaving this week. He told me that the company is paying for housing, so it wouldn't cost him extra to keep the current one. He said as long as I don't tell anyone about what's been going on, he'd let me stay in the house and send me money. It's a good deal, and I'm still trying to decide what to do. I'm glad he's leaving because I don't want to have to see him again, and I can keep the house for free. I just ran out because I was shocked. I took all my stuff and moved to the woods as of last night. I was planning to be out there until I turn 18 and graduate to get my own place, but the more I think about it, the more I feel inclined to move back the second he leaves."

Gia sat, speechless along with the rest of the rangers. Gavin had been sadly nodding along to the parts of the story he could remember but the look changed to one of horror as she detailed her last conversation with Olivia and everything after. Gia was the first one to talk.

"Em, I... don't know what to say. I- You know you always have a home with my parents and me, right? You don't have to move back into that horror house or stay in the woods. My parents would love to take you in."

Emma shook her head. "And what am I going to tell them when they start asking questions about why I no longer have a house? I've lied to them enough. And there's no way I am going to tell them the truth. I am not going to risk anything happening with my dad, right when he's finally leaving me alone. I certainly do not want anything to get reported either. I have a duty here. I can't leave, for any reason. I'll be fine. And I won't have to answer to anyone when I come home from fights. There won't be anyone there, so we could use the house as a ranger house. We'll make it work."

All Gia wanted to do was cry. Her friend was barely blinking an eye at everything that was happening around her. She was taking it all in stride, like it was just run-of-the-mill. As if she had been planning for this possibility. All the while, Gavin moved in to give his sister a hug.

He whispered softly. "You shouldn't have done that."

Emma hugged him back. "Done what?"

"Let mom take me away and leave you here. You deserved to be happy, and you deserved a childhood. You threw it all away the moment you told her to take me."

Emma sighed. "You were six, Gavin. I wanted to protect you, and that was the only way I knew how. If I could go back and do things over, I wouldn't change a single thing. I'd make all the same choices." She smiled at him. "Look at you, Gavin. You've grown up so beautifully. I don't regret anything."

"I was six, but you were eight. That's barely any better. The bottom line is that you shouldn't have had to make that choice. Mom never told me about any of this. All I know is what I can remember. She raised me well and took care of me, but she never talked about what happened before we moved. Anytime I brought it up, she shot me down."

The pink ranger held her brother's hand. "What's done is done, now. We can't do anything to change it, so now we have to live with the choices we made. I have to live with the choice I made. And frankly it hasn't been all that hard to live with it, because I knew you were safe."

She hesitated momentarily. "What are you doing here, Gavin? Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy to see you. But why were you in the plaza? What are you doing here and not in Paris? Is it Mom?"

Gavin looked away. "It's nothing wrong with Mom. It's me."


	7. Chapter 7

"Mom sent me here to be with you. I have my bags in a hotel right now that she set me up in."

Emma frowned. "I don't understand. I thought she got a job and it was paying well. Why would she send you here to me? Where she can't take care of you?"

"Because she knows you'll take care of me better than she can. Emma, my cancer's progressed. I'm sick, and the prognosis is not great. We've been going in for more chemo and radiation. I got a tumor surgically removed a couple years ago, but it grew back and it's metastasized. She can no longer afford to keep housing me on top of taking care of me. It has to be one or the other. If she takes care of me, she can't work and we literally cannot afford that. She sold the house to pay the medical bills and she's moving back in with her friend. The friend has no obligation to look after me, and mom isn't capable of doing that either. In order to keep paying the bills, she needs to work more hours. Like... All the hours she can. That means she's barely home and she's running herself into the ground."

Emma deflated at the news. "Is she okay?"

Gavin sighed. "For now. The only reason she even agreed to send me over at all was because she knew I'd be coming home to you. And she knows you'd do a better job than she ever could of taking care of me. She says there's a great neurologist here in Harwood, and she'll send money over for bills and food and stuff. When they were going through the divorce, dad told her that he had plans to move. As soon as she found out he got a new job, she stuck me on a plane and flew me out. I guess they talked about it and she knows we'll have a house and everything. She registered me for school, too. I start at Harwood High as a sophomore as of next week."

Emma was floored by the news. The rangers were shocked as well. Way too much was happening in way too short of a time for anyone to be able to properly process what was going on. The gears were already turning in Emma's head about what she was going to do about this.

"Well, until dad moves out, we can't let him know you're here. I'm assuming mom didn't tell him she was sending you here?" Gavin nodded affirmation. "Okay, so that's definitely something we need to keep from him. Until he leaves for Chicago, you and I are going to stay in the woods. I hope you're okay with a couple days out there. We're also going to need to get your bags from the hotel. What hotel are you in right now? We should-"

Jake cut in. "Emma, slow down. You don't have to do anything for right now. You just took a blast from who knows what, and you're hurting. You need to stay in this bed right now and focus on getting better. Whatever needs to be handled... We got it. Don't worry, just focus on getting better. Right, guys?"

The rest of the boys and Gia all nodded readily in agreement. It wasn't even a question. Noah gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "Now that you don't have to keep it a secret from us, you and Gavin could stay here in the Command Center until your dad leaves. It's certainly no permanent solution, being holed up in a cave for the rest of time, but it'll last you the week. It'll certainly at least be better than the woods. At least we have plumbing."

Troy nodded. "Yeah, and we'll handle getting Gavin settled in. He just needs to give us the information of the hotel and we'll get him checked out and bring his stuff." He turned to Gavin. "You can get us that info, right? I know you're only 15... We could call your mom if we have to."

Gavin agreed. "No, I have all the info. Also, I kind of have a doctor's appointment tomorrow afternoon."

Gia whistled. "Your mom really doesn't waste any time, does she? She wasn't even planning on calling Emma and talking about it with her? She just stuck you on a plane and expected everyone's lives to just fit around it? Your mom just expects Emma to drop everything. Emma has every right to hate you and your guys' mom. What if she had turned you away and refused to take care of you? What then? She gave you guys literally one day of adjustment period before Emma needs to start figuring out how to get you to your doctor's appointments."

Emma sat quietly. "She expects me to drop everything for him because she knows I would. If our last conversation was any indication, she knows I would give anything for him. And she is the one who taught me that I always need to protect him and take care of him, no matter the circumstances. Gavin's health and safety was always the family's number one priority. I couldn't get rid of my instinct to protect him, even if I wanted to."

She turned to her brother. "But still, some warning would have been nice. How were you expecting to find me? Just walk into the plaza and pray I'm there conveniently eating ice cream? I know you weren't planning on coming to the house..."

Gavin sighed. "I know, Emma. We should have said something. And I understand your frustrations, Gia, but it couldn't be helped. My mom couldn't talk to Emma because she wasn't there when Emma got her cell phone. She asked dad to let her speak with Emma so many times, but he always refused. We had no way of talking to her without dad knowing about it, and we certainly couldn't let him catch wind of the plan to send me over. I don't necessarily agree with everything my mom does, but at least I understand it."

He redirected his focus to the team as a whole. "I knew it was lunch on a school day, so I was planning to stop by and see if I could spot Emma or anyone who might know you guys. I got interrupted on my way by the monster attack. And I know it's crazy and sudden, but the doctor's appointment can't be helped. Mom would have scheduled it later to let us adjust, if she could have. But I've missed my last four scheduled radiation appointments because we couldn't afford them, and she just barely scraped together enough money two days ago to get me in for one session. If I don't go, the tumor could start cutting off my blood supply and I could have a stroke."

Jake blanched. "Okay, so mandatory attendance... Got it. Well, I just got my license a couple months ago, I can take you."

Emma looked at her friends with nothing but gratitude in her eyes. "You guys really don't have to do this. Seriously, I can figure things out. I don't want you to get involved in this mess if you don't have to."

Troy squeezed her hand softly. "We don't have to, but we want to. You've been suffering alone for so long. Let us help you. Please. We can't report your dad, and we can't help you press charges or pursue legal action against him. But, this is something we _can _do. Plus, look at yourself. How are you even going to get out of the Command Center, let alone get Gavin to his appointment?"

Emma gave him a hug. "Thanks, guys. You are the best."

At that point, Gavin and the boys left to get all the moving stuff handled.

And all Gia could do was look at her best friend with such deep sadness in her eyes.


	8. Chapter 8

Gia approached her best friend slowly and gave her a gentle hug. "I'm not going to push you, but please know you can talk to me."

Emma gave her a squeeze in return. "I will when I'm ready. This doesn't change anything. You're still my best friend, and I love you. Nothing will ever change that."

The Yellow Ranger sighed. "It changes everything, Em. But that's okay. It's clear you care deeply about Gavin, and taking care of him should be your top priority. I'm sorry none of us could help you sooner, though."

Emma shook her head. "Don't you dare apologize. It's none of your faults. I'm the one who kept it a secret from all of you. You have no idea how many times I wanted to tell you. I just couldn't. It was too big of a risk. Please, now that you know, none of you can spill. We'll get it all sorted once the whole Ranger thing is over, but we can't do anything to jeopardize our duties. And as much as I want to prioritize Gavin and take care of him, it can't be my priority. Saving the world has to be."

Gia looked her best friend right in the eyes. "No. Screw Gosei. He thrust you into this life with no choice, and you were already struggling enough without having the entire weight of the world thrown onto your shoulders. Gavin is your family, and he deserves to have you as a sister. You take care of him first, do you understand? The rest of us have you covered, if you ever need it. Just make sure he's okay."

Emma nodded heavily, and let her best friend wrap her arms around her. She relaxed into the warmth of the familiar embrace and eventually fell asleep, worn down from everything that had happened to her.

A week later, Emma was finally able to go home. She didn't feel like she was at her peak shape, but she at least felt well enough to leave the Command Center.

The group all made the trip back to the woods and gathered Emma's stuff. They threw it in Jake's car, with the exception of Emma's bike, seeing as it didn't fit. Since none of them wanted Emma to do anything strenuous, Gia volunteered to ride the bike back to Emma's house and meet the rest of them there.

The rest of the group knew they'd beat Gia home, so they stopped by Ernie's to pick up shakes. They all finished ordering their usuals and Gia's, so Ernie was surprised when another head poked out in the line. He was even more surprised to see he looked almost exactly like one of his favorite customers.

Emma smiled. "Ernie, I'd like you to meet Gavin. He's my brother. He'll be sticking around for a while, so you'll have yourself a new regular."

Gavin smirked. "I make no promises. They've been hyping your drinks up so much that it makes me slightly skeptical."

Ernie laughed as he finished taking his order. "Why have I never seen you around with Miss Goodall?"

He watched as the smile on Emma's face slightly faltered. She caught herself, but Ernie noticed.

The subject was still hard for Emma, so Troy stepped in. "That's a story for later. We are in a bit of a rush right now, so I don't think we have time."

Ernie decided not to push them. They'd open up if they felt ready. It really wasn't much of his business anyways. "In that case, let me get started on your drinks."

With fresh shakes in hand, the group piled into Jake's car and drove to Emma's house. Right as they were pulling in, Gia turned the corner and started coming down the street.

Noah smiled. "Perfect timing." Jake opened the door and started to move Emma's stuff from his car to the front of the house.

"While you were in the Command Center, we got Gavin settled in here. I assumed you'd want the master bedroom, so I set him up in one of the other rooms. I'd be happy to help relocate if you guys want."

Emma turned as Gia came up the driveway. "Thanks, Jake. That's perfect though. I'm just ready to sleep in a real bed and not that bed-shaped rock in the Command Center. I really won't be picky."

The rangers and Gavin all walked into the hall and started moving towards the living room, but Emma got stuck at the front. With a sharp intake of breath, she stood frozen.

In some ways, the house had changed. It was completely empty, devoid of decorations and stripped of all her dad's stuff. But in many ways, it was exactly as she had left it. The house was the same place where she was forced to endure some of the worst things a person could ever withstand. It was the same place she thought she had left behind for good.

Gia looked back when she noticed her friend hadn't followed them in. She backpedaled and gave Emma a tight hug. "I know it's hard. But we'll make it like it's new. We'll move in new furniture and new decorations... We're going to help you get through it."

Emma stepped in, feeling slightly more secure in the arms of her best friend. "It's just weird... He took everything that was his. Dad was horrible, but he was still my dad. Family... And now he's gone."

Gia didn't know what else to do, so she squeezed her friend as they traversed the rest of the hall together.


	9. Chapter 9

It had been a couple days since the Goodall siblings had moved back in to the house. Emma was still struggling with all of the emotional baggage, while also trying to take care of Gavin. As promised, their father was sending her money every so often, but it was not much.

He thought only Emma was using the money, so he sent enough for one person to survive off of. Not two. Their mother was struggling to make ends meet as well, but always had just enough to pay for Gavin's treatments.

Emma was starting to feel the financial pressure as Gavin got ready to head to his first day of school. They had just made a supply run for him. That meant they had no more money left for the entire rest of the week's food.

The Pink Ranger started discreetly pulling from the funds she had saved up. She thought Gavin would feel guilty knowing she was taking out of her own money, so she refused to tell him and allowed him to think everything was fine.

That reserve fund from her really wasn't that much either. If she was going to ration it and let it last for two people, Emma needed to make some sacrifices. She sent Gavin off with some lunch money, and resolved not to eat. They could figure out dinner together later.

Gavin was none the wiser to his sister's financial burden, but he did worry that everything was overwhelming. The other day, he had offered to put Emma on the phone with their mother, but Emma refused.

She wanted nothing more than to see or talk to her mother, but she simply wasn't ready. Though their mother had done a lot of good and was continuing to do so, she had also hurt Emma. By choosing Gavin to come to Paris and never interjecting when Ben hurt her, she unwittingly subjected Emma to years of torment.

Which she was forced to suffer alone.

Olivia also expected Emma to drop everything for Gavin, which she did, but it was hard for Emma to deal with that kind of responsibility. She was already cutting out food to keep her little brother strong and fed... And Emma knew that was just the tip of the iceberg.

She wanted to talk to her mom sometime, but now was not the time. Gavin pondered ways he could help alleviate some of the burden off of Emma when he ran into a kid being shoved up into some lockers.

By no means was the kid scrawny, but he didn't look like he was ready for a fight. Gavin couldn't just pass by without doing anything, so he shoved the bigger kid off and told him to get lost.

Unfortunately, being the new kid was never easy. It was also made worse for him when word got out that the new kid was a "freak baby" and that he was sick. His classmates didn't empathize or care more, they just used it as an excuse to stay away from him.

The older kid, Will, sneered at Gavin and shoved him back. "Really? What's the sick kid hoping to do to me? One flick to the forehead and you'd be out cold."

Gavin stood in front of the other boy protectively. "Making fun of the kid with a brain tumor? Real classy of you."

Too bad Will didn't find his sarcasm entertaining. Instead, he shoved Gavin up against the lockers next to the other kid and reached into his bag. He pulled out Gavin's wallet, and emptied its contents into his hand.

It wasn't much, but it was all he had. Gavin may not know to what extent Emma was struggling, but he did at least know money was tight.

He grabbed Will's wrist and pulled him back. "Give the money back."

In a surprisingly quick motion, Will reared his hand back and threw a punch straight for Gavin's face. It was so fast that he couldn't react.

What the bully didn't consider was that Troy was faster.

He heard the commotion from down the hall and came over as quickly as he could. He rounded the corner and saw Gavin in trouble. Troy rushed over and caught the punch just in time.

He twisted Will's wrist behind his back, until he started whimpering from the pain. Troy usually tried to keep his cool in these situations, but seeing someone picking on a sick kid set him off. Not to mention the fact that he was Emma's little brother.

He whispered in a lethal tone. "If you do not get out of my sight within the next four seconds, I will do something much worse to you than twist your wrist."

Will scrambled away and ran down the hall without stopping. That's when the late bell rang. He looked Gavin over. "Are you okay?"

Gavin nodded and then turned to the kid he was defending. "How about you?"

The boy nodded gratefully. "Fine, thanks to you guys. You really didn't need to step in. I know it's probably hard enough fitting in, being the new kid and all. But you've got yourself one friend already. My name is Jackson."

The younger Goodall smiled as he shook Jackson's outstretched hand. "Gavin."

Troy cleared hid throat. "That was the late bell, so we should all be getting to be class. Are you sure you're okay?"

Gavin laughed lightly. It seemed Emma's overprotective instincts were spreading. "I'm sure. You can get to class."

Troy left, before he could get flagged for detention. Jackson left too, but not without making plans to meet up for lunch first.

Gavin was then reminded of lunch and the money that was stolen. He cursed under his breath.


	10. Chapter 10

Gavin sat with Emma in the hospital after his first day of school. He was in for his regular check-up and had a session of radiation scheduled. He had been trying to suppress it, but his stomach kept growling.

Emma looked at him suspiciously. "I thought I gave you money for lunch."

Gavin tried to lie. "I ate lunch, I'm just hungry still." At that second, his stomach growled for a prolonged amount of time. Emma stared at him. "Don't lie to me."

He shook his head and relented. "Fine. This kid named Will stole the money in my wallet earlier today." He had been trying to keep it from her because he knew she would freak out, and he was right.

She freaked out.

Gavin told her the whole story and included the part about Troy coming to their rescue. Emma sighed. "This was not at all how I imagined spending my last semester of high school. Worrying about you like I'm your mother and relying on my friends to keep you out of harm's way. Why didn't you just come to me? I would have figured something out."

It was Gavin's turn to look at her. "I may be just some sophomore, but I'm not stupid. I know things are tight financially right now. I didn't want to cause any extra trouble."

Emma frowned. "It's not trouble, okay? Whatever you need, we'll find a way. You shouldn't be afraid to ask for my help. Come to me next time, and we'll get everything sorted. You're my little brother. I'm not going to let you go hungry."

Gavin gave her a small smile and nodded, at which point the doctor called him in for his treatment. Emma gave his hand a squeeze. "I'll be here when you finish." As soon as Gavin was escorted inside the room, Emma got up and started biking to Ernie's.

When she got there, Ernie smiled and started preparing her order. Emma asked him to stop, knowing she wouldn't be able to pay for it. "Thanks, Ernie. But I'm going to have to turn you down. Money is a little tight right now."

Ernie frowned slightly. Ever since her brother came into town, Emma had been struggling and stressed. He wanted to help her in any way he could, but he didn't want to pry. "Stop? That's nonsense. For you, it's on the house. Anytime starting now."

Emma's eyes shone with gratitude. "You have no idea what that means to me. I actually did want to ask you about something, though. I know it's a lot, and I'll understand if you can't allow it, but is there any way I can start working here?"

Ernie gave her a reassuring smile. He loved working alone and didn't see the need to hire someone if he was fine on his own. But Emma no longer gave off her usual bright and youthful energy anymore, and it hurt Ernie to know that a once vibrant girl was struggling so much. "Of course, Emma! Let me know what hours you are free. I'd be happy to finally get some help in here."

The Pink Ranger smiled gratefully. "Thank you so much. I'll earn my keep, no worries." Emma was slightly concerned about what she would do if a monster attack happened during her shift, though.

It was already hard enough having to run out of school without arousing suspicion during attacks. No one would want a 17 year old high school senior to work in their establishment at the same rate Ernie was willing to pay, so she had to come up with some excuse.

"My brother, Gavin... You met him the other day. He's sick. Pretty badly. Sometimes, he has episodes or bad days and needs to get to the hospital. My parents work to pay the medical bills, so they're not home with him. I have to rush out at unexpected times. I'll give you my hours of availability, but they'll be tentative at best. I'm so sorry for the inconvenience."

The best lies are always ones with parts of the truth.

Some things were starting to click for Ernie, and the knowledge about Gavin explained a lot. But he still worried for the young girl. It was a lot of responsibility for anyone, let alone a teenager.

"No worries at all. I'll be lucky to have such a great young lady working for me."

Emma smiled at him and thanked him for the shake. "I have to go pick up Gavin now. But I'm good to start tomorrow after school ends. If that's okay with you?"

Ernie nodded and waved goodbye.

He couldn't help the worm of concern that had wriggled its way into his stomach. Something was wrong.

Very wrong.


	11. Chapter 11

As soon as Emma arrived to pick up Gavin, she was alerted to the fact that something was not right. The doctor was wearing a somber expression, and her brother couldn't seem to look her in the eyes.

The doctor spoke softly. "I regret to inform you that his cancer has worsened. I won't sugar coat this because that's not my style. If he wants to live, he's going to need to be coming in twice as much as he is now for treatments, and we're going to have to keep monitoring his condition with regular scans."

Emma's heart fell. Her brother's health was the most important thing to her right now, and this news was hard to hear. Gavin was taking it even worse than her.

"Ever since I was born, I've been a burden. I made us lose our house, I made Dad quit his job, which was really bad all around and I nearly bankrupted us. Now, you're telling me I'm going to be even harder to handle?"

Emma quickly sat next to him and touched his arm. "Hey. You are not a burden. Not to me, not to anyone. Don't worry about the money. That's my job. You just focus on staying healthy and living your normal teenage life."

The doctor had long since left to give the siblings some much-needed privacy.

Gavin's voice shook as tears stung his eyes. "See? That's exactly what I'm talking about! Worrying about money shouldn't be your job. You should also get to live a normal teenage life and not have to raise and provide for me. That's the job of a parent, not you. It should have never been you."

Emma took her sleeve and wiped his cheek. "It shouldn't, but it is. These are the cards we have been dealt, and it's all we can do to play our hand. But taking care of you isn't something I'm doing out of obligation. I'm doing it because I love you."

She wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "While you were getting treated, I went to Ernie's and he gave me a job. I start tomorrow. I was going to be making enough for the two of us, but now I'll probably pick up some extra shifts. Don't worry, Gavin. I'll make this work. There's nothing more we can do. You can't work because of the hospital visits and you definitely cannot deal with strenuous activity. So you don't get to blame yourself for our situation. Neither of us could do anything different right now, so we're going to do what we can and see where that gets us. Okay?"

Gavin nodded, still upset. "You really have to start working? Between the increased expenses and your extra shifts, how are you going to have time to keep up in school? You have to bring me to the hospital constantly, too. And you have to attend to your Ranger duties? This is way too much for you. Are you going to be okay? God, I'm so sorry."

Emma pulled him in closer. "You let me worry about all that. We'll figure it out. And what did we say about apologizing? Don't say sorry for things that aren't your fault. We're going to be fine. I'm going to be fine. Just focus on staying alive. I'll do the rest."

Her younger brother leaned his head on her shoulder.

"This is so unfair."

—

Gia and the rest of the team listened as Emma updated them on everything that was happening. She asked them to look out for Gavin at school, and thanked Troy for having stepped up already.

Of course, the rest of the rangers readily agreed and promised to keep an eye out for him. They were willing to do anything if it meant helping out their friend.

But that's not what Gia was concerned about.

Her best friend was already running herself into the ground, and hadn't even started working yet. Between balancing work, Ranger duties, Gavin, and school, she simply did not see how Emma was going to do it all.

Also, being a good older sister and fully taking care of a sick younger brother was already hard enough. Having to work to provide for him, and meet the deadlines of his treatment appointments so he wouldn't die, was a whole new beast.

She pulled Emma aside after the rest of the Rangers left to go home for the day. "Emma, I'm worried about you. This is way too much for you right now. Actually, it's way too much for anyone, least of all you. Grown adults can barely handle this pressure. You're still recovering emotionally from your Dad, and on top of that, you're also a ranger. It's way too overwhelming."

Emma shrugged. "What else can I do? Genuinely, what are my options? Because I don't see another way. I've resigned myself to my reality, and I think everyone else has to do the same. I'll find a way to figure it out, because what other choice do I have? Gavin's not dying anytime soon, and I will do anything I can to ensure that is true. It's an impossible situation, I just need to roll with the punches."

Gia watched sadly as her best friend walked away, acting like she was okay with everything. In Gia's eyes, Emma seemed to be moving way slower now, with the weight of her brother's life and the world pressing down on her shoulders.

It wasn't a question of if Emma would burn out, but when.

Emma left, before Gia could see her tears. She had hidden how bad they were struggling financially, because she didn't want her friends to feel obligated to help. None of them really knew how much she was hurting.

She knew if they found out, they'd insist on helping. But she couldn't ask that of them. Gavin was her responsibility. Her friends were already doing way too much for her and supporting them emotionally. There was absolutely nothing that could convince her to ask for any financial support on top of all that.

And she resolved to do anything necessary to take care of him, no matter what it took.

No matter how much it cost her.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: I wanted to keep the story focused on Emma and her relationship primarily with Gia and with Gavin. However, I am open to giving her a love interest. Would you guys want Emma to have a love interest or is it too much too fast? And if so, who would it be? Please PM me or review with suggestions if you would like :)**

**Anyways, on to the story.**

It was the following day, and Emma's first on the job. Gavin had elected to stay home to catch up on his studies. Between the move and his constant treatments, he was far behind everyone else in his grade. While he stayed home, the rest of the rangers met up at the Brainfreeze to keep Emma some company.

As she walked over with all their shakes, they all tipped her a healthy amount. Emma glared at them and told them not to do that, but they insisted anyways. She was aware that it was their disguised attempt at helping her financially, and she hated that they felt obligated. But she was grateful for everything they were doing to help her out.

The pink ranger hadn't slept the previous night. Too many things were racing through her mind for her to be able to sleep peacefully. Chief among them was Gavin's condition worsening. She hoped and prayed that he would get better and that eventually he could live a normal and healthy life, but it didn't seem the fates were in agreement with her. Emma wanted nothing more than for her brother to be happy and safe, and she felt powerless knowing there was nothing she could do to help.

She was also plagued by the fact that they were barely scraping by on funds. Gavin called home every couple of days and had recently updated their mother, who also hadn't taken the news too well. Both Emma and Olivia were worried about Gavin's health, and neither were making enough to cover the extra costs.

Emma sat down with her friends to chat for a bit, then went in the back to talk with Ernie.

He looked at the teenager and didn't see the Emma he had always known. Now, it was like she was a shell of her former self. She never seemed to smile anymore, and her entire body would sag as she walked. He could tell she hadn't gotten a good night's sleep in a while, and wanted to send her home to rest.

He thought that was what she had come to ask, but instead, she asked for another shift.

"Emma, you look exhausted. You should rest. Maybe after a full night's sleep, you can pick up another shift tomorrow." Emma looked at him with pleading eyes, even though she knew he was right. But Troy had scheduled mandatory team training, and that meant she couldn't work extra. The siblings needed the extra money.

Ernie took one look at the desperation in her eyes, and reluctantly nodded. "I'll give you _one _extra shift. But you should go home a little bit before the shift ends. I'll still pay you for the time."

Emma smiled gratefully at him. Throughout the entire ordeal, he had been nothing but helpful to her and Gavin. She couldn't express in words how much it meant to her that Ernie was doing all he could to help out.

Just then, Emma's morpher went off. She played it off, saying it was a special ringtone to signal a call from Gavin, so she would be alerted immediately if he needed her.

"Gavin needs me right now, but I'll be back as soon as I can to finish that extra shift." With that, she ran off and left in a hurry with the rest of her friends.

Ernie shook his head as the exhausted teenager ran out yet again, to something he was sure would just stress her out more.

The rangers arrived on the scene to find Vrak and an army of Loogies. He momentarily started in surprise to see the pink ranger was there.

"I thought I had shot you with my new weapon... You should be dead."

Gia trembled with fury, remembering how much pain her friend had been in, and what trouble Vrak's attack had caused. "She's not dead. But you're about to be." Vrak watched as the yellow ranger charged at him with reckless abandon, and brought out the blaster. Even if it couldn't kill the rangers, it clearly had done serious damage and could at least put them out of commission. The rest of the rangers were kept busy with the Loogies, so he aimed at Gia and fired.

She saw it coming and rolled out of the way of the blast, watching as it hit some Loogies behind her. Their suits were not as strong or protective as the ranger suits, so they vaporized into thin air. Gia's heart raced a bit faster as she saw them completely disappear. She knew if she got hit with one blast, it would be game over. She took out her Megaforce Blaster, and aimed for Vrak's weapon, knocking it out of his hand.

Troy broke free of the Loogies and joined her, kicking the weapon far away from Vrak's reach. When he noticed the tide of the battle start to shift, Vrak fled and sent down an insect monster in his stead.

By this time, the Loogies had been incapacitated and the rangers were able to quickly finish off the new monster.

Gavin was at home, watching the attack on the news. Watching Emma run towards trouble and put her life in jeopardy on a regular basis always made him nervous, so Noah had dug up an old TV from his basement and hooked it up to the news for him. It didn't do anything to settle Gavin's nerves, but at least he knew that his sister was alive.

He watched as the monster grew several sizes too big, and released a large sigh of relief when he saw the rangers defeated him with no issues.

Back on the battlefield, the rangers celebrated their victory. As Troy, Gia, Jake, and Noah all hugged and gave each other high fives, Emma started walking back to the Brainfreeze.

She couldn't miss her extra shift.


	13. Chapter 13

Ernie watched from a distance as his new employee plastered a smile on her face and greeted the new customers to take their orders. From the outside looking in, she seemed fine, but Ernie knew better.

She came back and told him their orders, at which point Ernie demanded she go home and rest. Emma wanted to protest and finish her shift. She felt like she was taking advantage of Ernie's kindness by leaving during her shift and still getting paid for the whole time. But she took one look at the determination in his face and relented. She thanked Ernie for everything and left to go home.

It was ten at night when she got back, and she was surprised to see Gavin up. Usually, after a full day of concentration and hard work, Gavin was exhausted because of the strain it put on his body. His tumor made him weaker, so in conjunction, he usually ended up going to sleep relatively early.

Emma eyed him curiously as he sat at the living room table, pouring her a glass of water. "What are you doing still up?"

Gavin handed the glass to his sister. "I can't sleep until I know you're home. I always worry when you have to go and fight monsters, and it's even worse that you have to go straight to a shift right after. So I'm going to start staying up until you come home, so I know you're safe and you've made it back alright. We haven't even talked about it yet, but you're seriously a power ranger? How did that even happen? It's so dangerous, I had no idea teenagers were the ones under the suits. And now that I know it's you, the whole power ranger thing became way less cool. You put your life in danger on a daily basis, sometimes even twice a day."

Emma nodded sadly. "Perks of the job. How it happened will be a story for another time. But you know, if any other normal little brother found out their sibling was a power ranger, they would think it's cool."

Gavin laughed. "Emma, you and I are many things. But normal is not one of them. I guess it's still a little cool, but that doesn't mean I have to like it." He hugged his sister. "I'm not going to sleep until I know you're home safe."

The pink ranger returned the hug. "You don't need to do that. Your health comes first always, and you should be sleeping enough. If you don't, your body is just going to keep getting weaker and that could be really dangerous for you."

Gavin snorted. "You're one to talk."

Emma knew he was right, so she accepted the point. "I'll try to sleep a bit more. It's not like I haven't been trying though, it's just hard. But just because I can't, doesn't mean you shouldn't sleep. If you're going to make it a whole day at school tomorrow, you need to be well rested."

Her little brother sighed. "Emma, you work yourself into the ground trying to provide for me. The least I can do is stay up and greet you at the door. It's my fault you're out so late anyways."

Emma smacked him on the arm. "How many times do I have to tell you it's not your fault? If it really makes you feel less guilty for something that isn't even your fault to begin with, then you can stay up until I get home. But now that I'm home, you should really go to bed."

Gavin's eyes lit up. "You remember when we were kids and we would have slumber parties in your room? We'd get all the pillows from the couch downstairs and sleep on the floor. You always used to worry about Dad doing something to me, so it was easier for you to sleep when you could see I was safe and fine. We should do that again. Maybe it'll help you sleep easier."

He watched his older sister sigh. "I'd love to, and you can still set up in my room, but I won't be joining you for a while. I have a calc test tomorrow, and I haven't studied at all. That's another couple of hours for me before I can even think about a bed for the night."

Gavin deflated at the thought of his sister trying to balance so much, knowing he was a big part of that burden. "Well, why don't I stay up and help you?"

Emma fought hard to hold in her laughter. "Gavin, I really appreciate the offer. But no offense, you're a sophomore. You've just barely started trig. There's no way you'll know anything that we're doing in class."

Truth be told, Gavin had always been a math genius, even as a child. He was average in english and history, but excelled in math and science, light years ahead of his classmates. He could look at a single math concept for three minutes, and understand every detail and nuance that came with it. Both of the siblings knew he could look at her textbook once and understand the entire calculus unit. Emma was just looking for an excuse to get him to bed earlier, but both of them knew it was flimsy.

Gavin looked at her, knowing she wasn't going to get away with that one. "I may not be as good with technology as your friend Noah, but I'm probably better at math than him and Gia combined together. You know it and I know it. If you let me help you, we can both get to bed at a reasonable time."

The big sister instincts in Emma were screaming at her to turn him down, but she was too exhausted to argue about it. They set to work immediately, and ended up going to bed at one in the morning.

Emma knew if Gavin hadn't guided her, it would have been another all-nighter for her. She was grateful for it, but didn't feel all that great asking her little brother for support. In money, academics, or life in general. But if they were going to make this arrangement work, she was going to have to accept some form of help.

She still took a couple hours to fall asleep, spending most of that time worrying, but she looked to the side and saw Gavin's chest rising and falling steadily, and promised herself everything was going to be okay.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Thank you for the kind reviews. I really appreciate them and they motivate me to keep writing this story. I hope you all continue to enjoy :)**

The yellow ranger woke up the following morning in a good mood. The rangers had defeated Vrak and the monster yesterday with little to no difficulty, and had confiscated the weapon into the command center. They no longer needed to worry about the imminent threat, because Vrak lost the blaster that could penetrate their suit's protection. He could always build another one, but it would take him some time. They had at least successfully bought themselves some weeks to whittle down the enemy's forces before they had to face that threat again.

Jenna Moran smiled happily as her daughter walked down the stairs. She had a whole breakfast already prepared, since she was going off to work and wouldn't be able to eat with Gia. She gave her girl a kiss on the forehead and sat down to spend her last three minutes at home with her before she had to leave for work. "How is Emma? I feel like I haven't seen her in a couple weeks."

Gia tried to lie to her mother, but it was always hard for her. Gia's parents had always been so kind and nurturing to her, and had even unknowingly taken care of Emma when she was going through the worst of her home situation. She hated lying, but had promised Emma that she wouldn't tell anyone what had been going on.

"She's fine, mom. Just busy. We usually just meet up at Ernie's when we want to hang out."

Gia's mom smiled. "Well, we should invite her over to dinner soon. I've missed having her at the house so often. You always ate healthier when she was over. I couldn't pay you to eat cauliflower, but as soon as she came over, you'd eat whole salads, grain smoothies, and more broccoli than your stomach could fit."

Gia rolled her eyes. "It wasn't that bad, Mom. And it's only because she's vegetarian. I don't want to force her to eat something she's uncomfortable with."

Jenna laughed. "You girls are so cute. I wish I had someone I cared about that much when I was your age. You can invite the rest of your friends too, I'd be happy to have them all over. I wouldn't mind getting to know them better. That Jake boy is kind of cute." When she winked at Gia, her daughter fake gagged.

She exaggerated looking at the clock. "Oh, would you look at that? Isn't it time for work?"

Gia's mother jokingly teased her about Jake as her daughter pushed her towards the door. At that point, Jack Moran came down the stairs and watched as his daughter covered her ears and shoved his wife out the door.

He laughed at the scene. "What is going on here?"

Jenna smirked. "I was just talking to Gia about-"

Gia interrupted abruptly. "About how she's later for work and needs to get going? Yeah, that's why she's heading out the door now. I'm going to head to Emma's too so we can walk to school together. See you later, Dad."

Mr. Moran just shook his head as he went to grab an apple. He was used to his daughter and wife's antics. Once they were outside, Gia's mom turned and gave her daughter a hug. "Remember what I said, okay? Extend an invitation to Emma. I would be happy to have her over."

Gia nodded and hugged her mom back. "I will. Have fun at work today."

Mrs. Moran's face soured. "Fun? Have you ever worked a day in your life before?"

Gia laughed. "Nope! Bye!"

Mrs. Moran fake glared as she pulled out the driveway. Gia was walking to Emma's this morning on the way to school, and started heading down the opposite sidewalk. "Do you want me to drive you to her place before I head out?"

The yellow ranger didn't want to take any risks of her mother finding anything out about Emma's situation or getting suspicious, and didn't mind the walk either. She was in a great mood and the sun was shining bright. "No, it's okay mom. I'll talk to you when I get back from school today."

Gia's mom drove away and rolled down the window to yell. "I love you!"

Her daughter laughed and yelled back. "Love you too, mom! See you soon."

With that, Gia's mother drove away. At school, Gia could be the badass tough girl all she wanted, but when she was home, she enjoyed the relationship she shared with her parents. Especially with the recent knowledge of what Emma had gone through, she had an entirely newfound appreciation for how amazing her parents had been to her. She vowed to do something nice for her mother once she got home. On her walk over to Emma's, she started thinking about where they could go on a mother-daughter date.

She arrived fifteen minutes later to the Goodall household, and pulled out a house key. After everything that had happened recently, Emma thought it would be a responsible move to give someone else a key, since there were no other adults who could get in. And if anything happened to her, Emma took comfort in knowing that Gia would be able to get in and take care of Gavin if need be. When she entered, Gavin was in the kitchen eating a sad excuse for a fried egg, as he helped Emma cram last second for her math test. The pink ranger looked up to see her best friend, and smiled.

Gia laughed. "Well, you're certainly looking better. Yesterday, you looked like a zombie. If the wind blew hard enough, you would have collapsed."

"I only got four hours of sleep, but I feel much better than I would have if I pulled another all-nighter."

Her little brother smirked. "Yeah? And who helped you finish all your calc homework on time?" Emma punched him playfully. "Okay, we get it, you're good at math. No need to rub it in."

Gia looked questioningly at Emma. "You let your sophomore year brother help you with math? And he succeeded?"

The siblings looked to each other, and spoke at the same time. "Math genius."

Gia shrugged. After everything that had been going on recently, that wasn't even in the list for the top ten craziest things she had heard in the last week. Just as she was about to tell them to start packing it up so they could start walking, the doorbell rang. Gavin volunteered to answer it, so Gia went to help her best friend clear everything up and get ready to leave.

Gavin opened it, and found a complete stranger on the opposite side of the door. "Hello. What can I do for you?"

The stranger looked tentatively inside. "Is Gia here?"

Gavin immediately tensed up and looked cautiously at the woman. "Why are you asking?"

If she was after Gia, he was not going to give anything regarding her whereabouts. He was not in the business of putting his sister's friends in danger, especially after everything they had done for him. As far as he was concerned, she was a total stranger who shouldn't even know Gia was in the house.

The woman watched as Gavin regarded her suspiciously, and immediately explained herself. "I've seen Gia playing with Emma out on the block before. I know they've been friends for years. I'm a neighbor, I live two houses down." She pointed her house out to Gavin. "I saw her walk in, and really need to speak with her."

At this point, the girls had their bags ready to go and brought over Gavin's too. They were ready to leave, and wanted to check out what was holding him up. Emma glanced at the woman and was surprised to see who it was.

"Mrs. Williams? What are you doing here? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

The woman wrung her hands tentatively. "A couple minutes ago, there was a really bad car accident. They've identified the vehicles." She had been wondering who this boy at the door was because she had never seen him before, but decided to ask about him later. Now was not a good time. Instead, Mrs. Williams turned her attention to the blonde.

"Your father has already been called. But Gia, there was an incident. We should really talk about this in private."

The yellow ranger shook her head, already knowing where this was going. "Just say what you need to say. And talk fast."

The neighbor sighed. "They sent out a neighborhood alert earlier this morning. It's about your mother."

Gia's eyes welled up.

"She was one of the drivers."


	15. Chapter 15

The girls raced as fast as they could to the hospital. Upon hearing the news from Mrs. Williams, Emma had grabbed her and Gavin's bikes from the garage and gotten ready to ride. After giving strict instructions to Gavin to come to the hospital straight after school for treatment, she and Gia rode the two bikes as fast as their legs could pedal.

They arrived at the hospital to find the ER in a state of frantic movement. The crash had involved four vehicles, so the ER was getting swamped with patients. Emma grabbed Gia's hand and squeezed supportively as they asked the receptionist where her mother was being held. After receiving directions on where to go, they raced towards Mrs. Moran's room.

Jack Moran had driven to the hospital as soon as he got the call that his wife had been in an accident, and as a result, was already in the room when the girls arrived. He wrapped Gia in a hug, when her mother's heart rate monitor started beating erratically, indicating a code. When she learned about Gavin's condition and was old enough to understand medical terminology, Emma took it upon herself to start taking community college classes in an attempt to educate herself on medical concepts and basic medical care.

She watched in horror as a team of doctors and nurses ran in, trying to revive Mrs. Moran. The pink ranger wanted to help and support her best friend, but her eyes were glued to the terrifying scene that was playing out in front of her. When her mother had run out on her and left with Gavin, Mrs. Moran had been the closest thing she had to a mother. She had taught Emma everything she needed to know and had been an amazing caretaker and mentor for her. If it weren't for Jenna, Emma was sure she'd be lost.

Seeing a woman, who cared for her so deeply and had taken care of her, dying in front of her eyes was too much.

Gia was crying in her dad's arms. The doctors eventually stopped their chest compressions, knowing Mrs. Moran was not going to wake up.

"Time of death, 9:23 am."

Mr. Moran and Emma stood frozen in shock, while Gia sobbed. She hysterically yelled at the doctors to keep trying to revive her mother, but everyone in the room knew it was already over. The doctors left the room, in hopes that would get Gia to calm down a little bit. As her father and Gia took some time to come to terms with what happened and say their final goodbyes to Mrs. Moran, Emma stumbled backwards out of the room.

It felt like everything in her life was moving way too fast, and as soon as things started to look up, the world would harshly shove her back down again. One punch just came after the other, repeatedly, and Emma couldn't keep up. She sent a quick text to the rest of the rangers explaining what happened, and they responded that they'd get out of school and be right over.

Emma knew there wasn't anything she'd be able to do to console her best friend, so she took a seat in the waiting room. Eventually, she was joined by her friends to wait and make sure Gia knew she had a support system.

After countless hours of crying, Gia finally managed to calm her hysterics down to hiccups. It felt like every last ounce of water in her body had been cried out, and she had nothing left to give. She tried her best to say goodbye to her mother, as she sat by her bedside holding her limp hand.

"I love you, Mom. I love you so much. I'm so sorry this happened to you. If I had just let you give me a lift to Emma's you wouldn't have gone that way and none of this would have happened. You were so great to me, and I never even told you how much you meant to me. Recently, some things have been happening and they taught me that you and Dad are the most important people in my life. And now you're gone.

I had this whole plan about how we would go to the spa when I got home. I hate being seen in public doing anything that would hurt my reputation, but for you, I was willing to do anything. We never got to go on mother-daughter dates, or do something as simple as clothes shopping because I let my ego get in the way. I'm so sorry we didn't get to do any of the things I know you wanted to do. Thank you for everything you've done for me and Dad. I love you and I'm sorry I couldn't do anything to save you."

Her father had left the room when Gia started to talk, so that she could have her chance to really say goodbye in private. Gia was reduced to whispers because her normal voice was no longer functioning. "I'm the yellow ranger. I couldn't tell you because I didn't want to put you in danger. But it's so hard, and way too much responsibility. I wanted to tell you so many times, but I couldn't take that kind of risk. I have so much pressure on me to do the right thing and save everyone, and I couldn't even save you. All I ever do now is protect people and save them from monsters, and I couldn't protect the one person in this life who is most important to me.

For that, I'll never forgive myself. But I hope you're watching over me and looking out for me. I don't know what Dad and I are going to do without you. But there's one thing I do know. All I want to do is make you proud. I hope you're proud of me for my duties as a ranger, but even more, I hope you're proud of who you raised me to be. I'm so sorry I couldn't save you."

Gia wanted to say more but couldn't bring herself to. She opened her mouth, but no sounds came out. Her head hung low as she squeezed her mom's hand one last time. She walked out to find her dad waiting outside. He hadn't gotten a chance to say goodbye to Jenna, so Gia left to the waiting room to give him the same privacy her father had given her.

She turned the corner and was surprised to find the whole team waiting. Gia wanted to thank them for staying, but simply didn't have the energy. In a move that surprised everyone, she passed right by all of her friends and collapsed into Jake's arms. He almost buckled under the weight, shocked that she had gone to him, but held her tight. He had always had a crush on Gia, but right now, she needed a friend. He sat with her and let her rest, while he stroked her hair.

One of the police officers who had been roaming around the ER came over to the group of teens. "Is one of you named Gia Moran?"

Noah spoke to the cop, and pointed her out. "That's Gia, but I really don't think now is a good time to talk with her."

The cop nodded and looked at her sympathetically. "Come find any one of us officers whenever she's ready, we have an update for her. In the meanwhile, I'll try to locate her father."

As he walked away, Emma walked after him and stopped him. Out of all the kids, the cop noticed that she looked the worst aside from Gia. "I'm sorry, but Mrs. Moran was like a mother to me. Gia and I are best friends, and she practically raised me. Is there any chance you could tell me anything about what happened?"

The officer pulled her aside and lowered his voice. "Jenna Moran was killed in a car accident involving four vehicles. In total, eight people were involved in the crash including her. There was a family of four in a nearby car, and all four of them are critical but alive right now. In another car, there was a couple. They both passed earlier today."

Emma absorbed the news, still in shock. "And the fourth car? The eighth person? Do we even know what caused the crash?"

The cop's eyes darkened. "The eighth person was the driver of the vehicle that caused the crash. He was drunk, and should never have been on the road. He was shown to be severely intoxicated upon being tested, and he ran a red at full speed straight into the couple's car. The collision was so bad that there was a minor explosion, which is how Mrs. Moran and the family of four got caught up in it. He is currently the only stable one to come out of the crash."

Emma's eyes clouded over with rage. Right as she was about to ask another question, a woman frantically ran into the ER. "I'm looking for Jerry Haynes! Please. Someone help me. I heard he was in a car crash." Emma's rage somewhat subsided as she felt sympathy for the poor woman, who probably had a loved one in the crash too.

The officer sighed. "That's the driver's wife. I'm going to go update her on the situation." He then looked Emma in the eyes. "I'm sorry for your loss. I'm sorry for your friend too. When she wakes up, come find one of us and we'll relay the information to her. You shouldn't have to tell her." With that, he left to go update the frantic wife of the driver.

And Emma slowly found her way back to the waiting room.


	16. Chapter 16

Gia had long since woken up and was with her dad, getting updated on the entire situation from the team of officers. As time passed, Emma felt like the hospital was slowly closing in on her and suffocating her. She had been spending far too much time in there as of late, and needed to escape. She didn't leave until the rest of her friends and especially Jake, promised her that they would look after Gia. Emma wanted nothing more than to be with her friend right now, but couldn't stay strong.

She needed to break down about how everything in her life was going wrong, and was sure that was not what Gia or Mr. Moran needed right now. They needed a strong support system to help them get through the loss of Mrs. Moran, and Emma knew that wasn't her. As she stepped out of the ER to get a breath of fresh air, she saw a lone figure walking into the hospital parking lot. She looked closer and realized it was Gavin coming in for his treatment. He hadn't seen her since he was going to a completely different section of the hospital, but Emma ran after him. She needed someone right now, too.

Emma had always wanted to be strong for her little brother, but this was one time she could make an exception. On the whole walk over, Gavin had wanted to text Emma and get an update on what was going on, but knew she was probably not going to be able to answer. He decided the best thing he could do for her was take responsibility for himself and take some pressure off of her by making it safely to his treatment and getting it done without her having to practically babysit him.

That's why he started in surprise when he felt a tap on his arm, and turned to see his sister in tears. The words "What's wrong?" were halfway out of his mouth when Emma broke down completely. He embraced her and caught her before she could fall, and rubbed circles into her back. He had never been in a position where he had to comfort his sister before, because she had always been the strong one. But he knew that whenever he was going through a hard time, Emma just holding him always made him feel a little bit better.

Eventually after around ten minutes of just standing in the middle of the hall like that, Emma's cries had calmed slightly. She stayed in his arms and whispered harshly. "Don't you dare ever leave me. Do you hear me? You do not get to die, okay? Please don't leave me."

Gavin squeezed her tight in reassurance. "I'm doing everything I can. I'm so sorry, Em. I knew how much she meant to you."

He felt Emma nod slightly, and she let go of the embrace to try and pull herself together. She was responsible for her brother and his health, and would make sure she didn't lose another person ever again. His life hung in her hands, and she could not be sad and weak when he needed her.

Gavin struggled to watch his sister force the broken pieces of herself back together for him. She looked at the time and gestured towards the building where he received his treatments. Her voice was still a little hoarse, so it came out more as a whisper. "We should get going. Your appointment is in five minutes, and we really cannot miss it."

He nodded and they headed off, but not before he pulled his sister in close to him and squeezed as they walked to where they needed to go.

—

By the time Gavin's appointment had ended, Emma had calmed considerably. She had been in constant communication with Jake, and Gia had understandably not taken the news too well about how the crash had been caused. She went into an uncontrollable fit of rage and almost lost it on the driver's wife, but her dad managed to sequester her before anything serious went down. Apparently, she had another emotional breakdown after that, and they were just now trying to get her home and away from the hospital. Staying would not do anyone any good.

Emma felt horrible about not being there for her friend, but knew it was better that way. Gia needed someone who could support her, not someone who was just as broken as her. Plus at a time like this, Emma needed to keep Gavin close to her and make sure he was safe and alive. This hit too close to home for her, and she knew she couldn't let anything happen to her brother.

She would go over to the Moran house later to offer some support when everyone was feeling less impacted by the shock of the morning. Emotions were running high right now.

Gavin closed the door behind him and found Emma waiting for him. Whenever he finished his treatments, he would feel weak and a tad sluggish, so Emma took on some weight and helped him walk. The family obviously could not afford a car, so most of their transportation happened on foot. That's why Emma always needed to come with him to the treatments. If she didn't, he'd be left on his own to fend for himself in a weakened state, and she often worried he wouldn't even make it home.

She remembered she had ridden her bike to get here, so they went back to the ER. She never liked taking her bike when she came to get Gavin, because that meant she'd have to support him with one arm and hold the bike with the other as they walked. It was too difficult for her to properly manage everything at once.

But today, she was just going to have to make it work.

As they walked to the entrance, they saw Emma and Gavin's bikes by the rack. As they went to unchain them and head home, the siblings ran into Noah. He looked at the duo sympathetically, wishing he could do something to help. Since Jake was the only one with a car, he couldn't do much. He did however, offer to take one of the bikes with him as he walked home, and promised to drop it off on Emma's porch.

His parents had called once they heard he had missed most of school from the attendance office, and they wanted him home. As much as he wanted to stay and support the girls, he needed to get home quickly. The least he could do was help by taking the bike with him.

She smiled gratefully, unable to muster the energy to actually thank him verbally, and returned her attention to figuring out how she was going to hold the bike and Gavin at the same time.

At that point, Troy and Jake walked out. The rangers had left school in a rush, and did it secretively so they wouldn't get caught or questioned about where they were going. They were not Mrs. Moran's immediate family, so the school would not have let them out otherwise. This meant that the black ranger's car was still at school. Troy offered to help out by supporting Gavin's weight, and Jake took the second bike. Emma was never more grateful for her friends than in that moment.

As they turned to leave, Jack and Gia Moran stepped out of the ER. The boys tried to warn her and let her know that Gia was understandably upset and a little angry. Emma knew emotions were high, and that's why she was trying to avoid a meeting until later that night, but Gia was not thinking as rationally.

She walked up and shoved Emma so hard that she fell straight backwards, and it was all Troy could do to catch Gavin and make sure he didn't fall along with her.


	17. Chapter 17

Mr. Moran tried to pull his daughter back, but simply didn't have anything left in him. Just that morning, his daughter and wife had been poking fun and laughing in the hall of the house. And now, his wife was gone forever. He had absolutely nothing left in the tank.

From the floor, Emma silently pleaded with the boys to go and take Gavin home. They hesitated, but reluctantly agreed. The day had been exhausting for everyone, and the faster Gavin got home, the better. And they were feeling the same heavy atmosphere as Emma had earlier. It felt like the entire world was pressing down on them, and they thought it best if they leave.

Gia confronted Emma once the boys had left and she had picked herself up off the floor. "Where did you go?! Where were you? I needed you, and you left me. This has been the worst day of my life, and you weren't even here."

"Gia, I-"

"Save it. I know your brother is more important to you than I am. You told me his arrival wouldn't change things between us, but clearly you were wrong."

Emma hung her head. "You were the one who told me to prioritize my relationship with him, and his health. He needed me, Gia."

"Yeah, well I needed you too. I needed you more than he did, and you were absolutely nowhere to be found. He was here for a routine treatment. He's here for it all the damn time. Gavin knows exactly where to go and what he needs to do, he doesn't need you to coddle him. It wasn't his first time around the block. My mother died today, and you still chose him over me."

The pink ranger knew her best friend wasn't in her right mind. She knew Gia didn't mean anything she was saying, but it still hurt to hear. Gia continued her verbal assault on the pink ranger.

"My mother had been there for you through the worst part of your life, and took care of you when your own mother decided you weren't worth the effort. Now she's gone, and you can't even be there." She spit the last part in Emma's face.

"It's your fault she's dead."

Emma felt like the air had been sucked clean out of her. "Gia, you don't mean that."

Her best friend nodded vigorously. "No, I do. I mean it completely. Do you know why she went to work so late today? Because she stopped to talk to me about you. She was worried about you, and was asking why you never came over anymore. All she wanted was to make sure you were doing okay, because as soon as Gavin came here, you decided no one else in your life was important. She had done everything for you, and she had been a mother to you, and you can't even be bothered to stop by or let her know how you're doing? She left late because she was talking to me about having you come over, so she could see you again. She loved you, and you did nothing to repay the favor. Instead, you got her killed. If she had just left to work on time, she wouldn't have been at that light when the drunk asshole ran it and caused the explosion that killed her."

Every word hit Emma harder than any monster or mutant ever could. She forced out a whisper. "I'm sorry. I-"

Gia cut her off. "I hope you realize what you've done. Your complete neglect for the people who cared for you when you were lost is why we're here. It should have been you."

"Gia Moran, that's enough." From the moment Gia had shoved Emma, her father had become almost despondent. It's like the world had stopped spinning. But listening to that last comment shook him out of his stupor and he cut in before his daughter could do any more damage. "We're going home now. You're done."

The yellow ranger turned on her heel and stormed off. She didn't know where her dad had parked, and just started heading off in a random direction. Jack turned to Emma. "I'm sorry I didn't step in sooner... I just don't know what to do without Jenna here. I'm lost and I have no idea what to do anymore. I don't know how to help Gia either. I'm sure she didn't mean anything she said, it's just been a lot for all of us."

Emma nodded quietly. She did what she had always done in the past. She just took the abuse. Whether it was physical or verbal, Emma had learned that fighting back was a losing battle.

Mr. Moran looked and saw Gia about to turn the wrong corner, and wanted to stop her from getting lost. Before he left, he turned to Emma and gave her a hug. While Mrs. Moran had been a bit of a mother figure to Emma, the same could be said about Mr. Moran being almost like a father to her.

Jenna's death hurt everyone in this situation, and he hated to leave the girl he had come to love out to dry. "I'm sorry, Emma. Really. We'll talk about everything together when she has calmed down a little bit... I need to make sure she gets to the car safe, it's getting dark out. Do you have any way to get home?"

Emma returned the hug halfheartedly and whispered back. "I'll figure something out."

With one last squeeze, Jack left to go tend to his daughter. Once he left, Emma stumbled back until her back hit a wall. She slid down and buried her head into her knees, unable to deal with everything that was happening to her.

She didn't know how long she had been sitting there crying, but she was brought out of it by someone tapping her shoulder gently. She looked up and saw Jake looking at her, concerned.

"I take it things with Gia are a little hard right now?" Emma didn't respond.

Jake grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. "It's been three hours, Em. It's eight at night right now. You shouldn't be out this late, especially by yourself. It's been hours since you came home and Gavin started to worry, so he called me to look for you. He's really worried about you, you know. We should get you home."

Emma just nodded silently and began the long journey home.


	18. Chapter 18

Jake dropped Emma off at her house, and waited to watch her successfully enter, before he left to go home. It had been a long day for him too. After Gia had chosen to collapse in his arms, he had decided it would be best to stay and take care of her while they were at the hospital. Between being the point person for her and also having to get Gavin home with Troy, and then later having to come back and take care of Emma, he had been drained. The black ranger also knew that the following day would be equally hard, if not worse, so he left for his house immediately, knowing he would need rest to face what was coming.

Emma entered the house and found Gavin waiting for her, just like the night before. He tried to talk to her. "Emma, are you-"

"Have you eaten?"

Gavin sighed. "Em, come on. We should talk about it."

"Did you eat? It's almost nine. You need dinner, especially since you got treatment today."

"You don't have to act like nothing is bothering you, Emma. Not everything is about me, you're allowed to have feelings too. You don't have to always be strong around me, please. I can help you. Ignoring the problem is not going to make it go away."

Emma pulled out a small container from the fridge, with about ten berries inside. Money was still tight, and the food situation wasn't any better. She sighed as she pushed the fruits to her brother, knowing she would have to go another day without eating anything.

"I really don't want to talk about it. Maybe another time. I just... can't right now. Eat the berries and go to bed. You need rest. You're already far enough behind in school, you can't miss tomorrow. Get some sleep."

Gavin opened his mouth to protest, but knew nothing would get through to her. He would have to try again to get her to open up in the morning. Instead, he just took his berries and left to his room. Once again, he found that the best thing he could for Emma was to give her one less thing to worry about.

It was around one in the morning, and Gavin had long since gone to bed. Emma hadn't moved from her spot at the dinner table. As soon as she was confident he was asleep, she had withdrawn into herself. If left undisturbed, she would have just sat there frozen for the rest of the night.

However, the sound of something clattering out on the driveway broke her from her trance-like state. She immediately grabbed her morpher at the unfamiliar noise, and crept to the door. Before she could even look through the peephole, she heard the door unlocking and saw it open. Her heart jumped to her throat, until she saw it was just Gia.

She looked past her friend and saw Gia's upended bike in the middle of her driveway. That would explain the loud crashing sound she heard. In her haste to get to the house, Gia must not have even bothered to make sure her bike was upright before she jumped off and got to the door. Then, Emma briefly wondered about how Gia had gotten in without her even opening the door, but remembered the key she had given to her.

Before Emma could even say anything, Gia ran in and wrapped her arms tight around her best friend. Her eyes were rimmed red, and it was clear she had been crying. "I'm so sorry, Em. I didn't mean any of it, I swear." She tried to say more, but dissolved into sobs before anything else could get out.

Emma didn't know what to say, so just held her best friend until Gia was able to calm down a little. "I should never have opened my mouth. Everything I said was so horrible, and none of it was true. You have to believe me when I say I didn't mean anything. It's not your fault, Emma. Please believe me. I'm so sorry for everything I said."

The pink ranger could feel the guilt and shame radiating off of Gia, and squeezed her in reassurance. The apology was sincere, but Emma still didn't trust her voice. The whole day, it had been failing her. She whispered to her friend. "It's okay, Gia. I forgive you."

Gia felt even worse at how willing Emma was to forgive her. "It's okay to be mad at me, Emma. Everything I said was uncalled for. You don't have to forgive me because you feel bad. You have every right to hate me, I deserve it for what I did."

Emma broke off the hug to close the door. It had been open this whole time, and it was still past midnight after all. She wasn't taking any chances. "Gia, I'm upset, but I'm not angry. It was... a really bad day. For everyone. I understand why you said what you said, and I know you didn't mean it." She hesitated. "And there is some truth to what you said."

Gia immediately cut in to protest, but Emma wouldn't let her. "You were right. Ever since Gavin got thrown into my lap, I've been so focused on him that I lost sight of everything else. I shouldn't have just disappeared on your mother or father, after everything they did to take care of me. They didn't know anything about me, and I lied to them everyday I knew them about what happened to my parents, and they still took care of me. I didn't treat them the way they deserved to be treated, and that's on me. I'm sorry. It's my fault your mom left late, and it's my fault she was at that light."

The yellow ranger's voice broke when she heard her best friend had agreed with the angry rant she had gone off on earlier. "Emma, no. It's not your fault. It's not anyone's fault except that damn asshole who thought it would be okay to get blackout drunk in the morning and start driving. I'm sorry I said it was your fault, and made you think that. It's not what I believe. It wasn't you, please don't blame yourself."

Emma still felt guilty, but tried to suppress some of it. She figured that as time went on, she would feel better. But right now, everything was still fresh, and everything was still hurting. "Gia, it's fine. If I were in your position, I probably would have done the exact same thing. I know you were just hurt. I promise I'm not mad at you. And I'm sorry if I made you feel like you didn't matter to me anymore, or that I was neglecting you. It wasn't my intention."

Gia just wrapped her friend in another hug, too afraid to let go. Her mother had been alive and well that morning, but the world had turned everything upside down in the blink of an eye. She was not going to let an argument take away another person who was important to her. "I understand, Emma. You haven't been making me feel neglected, I lashed out and tried to say something that would hurt you. I told you that he needs to be your priority, and I still stand by that. I should have never guilted you for wanting to take care of him."

The pink ranger led them over to the couch so they could sit. "It looks like we both have our fair share of issues to work through." Gia laughed, eyes still watering with unshed tears. Emma refocused the attention back to Gia. "How are you doing? I know it's so fresh. I really am sorry about everything."

Gia took her friend's hand, and the tears spilled out. Her voice was much less steady than it had been even ten seconds ago. "It still hurts. How did you do it? When your brother was taken from you, and your mom left, everything you loved was taken away. Your father was hurting you, all the while. How did you get past it and move on?"

Emma looked down. "I don't think I ever did."

Gia's heart broke both for herself and the girl who had become like a sister to her. Their lives had way more pain than any teenager should have to experience. "We'll work through this together. I did a horrible job of showing it today, but I really am here for you. If you need anything, or even just someone to talk to, I always have time for you."

Her best friend nodded. "I'm here for you too. We can get through this together."

Gia gave her hand a weak squeeze. "So are we good?" Emma responded with a small smile. "Yeah, of course we are."

The yellow ranger wrapped an arm around her best friend as they sat on the couch together. They had one moment of peace before Emma turned around and smacked her as hard as she could on the arm. "Are you out of your god damn mind?! It's one in the morning and pitch black outside! You decided it would be a good idea to ride your bike to my house? In the dark? I thought you were supposed to be some kind of genius."

Gia rubbed her arm, knowing that was going to bruise. "Okay, I guess I kind of deserved that for shoving you earlier. I'm sorry for that too. I was trying to sleep, but the guilt over our fight was keeping me up. I knew I wouldn't be able to rest until I made things right with you, or at least apologized."

Emma eased up a little. "Does your dad even know you're here?" Gia shook her head shyly.

"I kind of snuck out. I really needed to see you, and I knew he wouldn't let me. I waited until he was asleep and left. He's having a really hard time too right now, I figured I shouldn't bother him or cause trouble."

"And how do you think he'd react if he woke up in the middle of the night and found his daughter missing? After everything that's happened today?"

Gia hung her head. "You're right. I didn't even think about that. I just left."

Emma gave her one last hug for the night. "Come on, let's get you washed up. You can stay with me tonight. I would want you to be with him right now, but I don't have a car and I definitely do not want you to bike back home by yourself. Just text him now explaining why you left, and that you're staying the night, so that he at least knows where you are when he wakes up. Or if he's already awake, it'll relieve him greatly to hear from you. I'll go get an extra pillow for you."

Gia smiled for the first time that day. "Thanks, Em."

It certainly didn't feel like it now, but maybe someday, everything would turn out okay.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: To my lovely anon reviewer, thank you so much for the feedback. Sometimes, it feels like my story isn't really landing on anyone but reading your reviews and knowing you're reading always makes it much easier for me to write. I am staying safe and hope you are too :)**

It had been two weeks since the loss of Gia's mother, and that loss was felt greatly by the whole team. The death had hit Gia and Emma the hardest, but the boys felt horribly since they knew how close Gia and Mrs. Moran had been.

However, after having gone to Jake for comfort on the day of the crash, Gia had been spending much more time with him. The girls had made up and were back to being best friends, but there was occasionally the underlying hint of tension still. After all, Emma had abandoned Gia on the worst day of her life, and in return, Gia had wished it had been Emma in the crash and not her mother.

It was hard to just get over that.

Out of the surviving family of four from the crash, only three made it out of the hospital. The eight-year old girl had passed away in the ER shortly after Gia's mother. Together with Mr. Moran, they were pressing charges against the drunk driver, trying to get justice for their loved ones. All of the court appointments and meetings with the lawyers were keeping him busy, so Gia was left mostly to her own devices.

Most days, the loss slowly became less and less painful for her, but at times, the guilt and the hurt would come back and wash over her in waves. It would hit her so hard that she was unable to move, and all she could feel was intense and agonizing pain. But with the help of her father and the other rangers, Gia was slowly getting better.

On a particularly good day for her, Jake had invited her out to the Brainfreeze. They got their usual orders from Emma, gave her a big tip, and talked about his upcoming soccer game.

"Hey Gia, I have a quarterfinals game tomorrow. If we win this, that brings us one step closer to becoming champions. Do you maybe want to come? I wouldn't mind getting an extra ticket for you, and I'm sure Coach wouldn't mind. I'd love to have you in the stands cheering me on."

Gia smiled. "Of course, I'll be there. But if you have this big game tomorrow, is it really the best idea to be having a shake right now?"

The black ranger laughed. "Nope. But I'm doing it anyways. I'll just make up for it with a little extra practice on the grass later today. I'm just going to be by myself, the rest of the team wants to rest up. Wanna come?"

She nodded without hesitation. Jake had been exceptionally good to her throughout the events of the last couple weeks, and was taking it upon himself to take care of her and look after her. Recently, Jake had consistently displayed a new level of mature, and time spent with Jake flew by. Often times, it distracted her from her feelings of pain and loss. Everything with him was just natural and easy.

They waved goodbye to Ernie and Emma, then headed out. On their way to the park, they took a secluded route through some of the forest that Emma usually frequented. Sometimes, time alone was all anyone needed to get their heads cleared. They were completely away from civilization, taking the long way towards the soccer field.

Jake and Gia stopped in a clearing to admire the wonderful view. There was a small stream that was running through this part of the forest, and the greens were bursting around it. Usually, Gia just sat back when she came to the forest while Emma took pictures of nature's beauty, but today, she was entranced.

Jake turned to see Gia admiring everything around them, and found her so beautiful in that moment. Everything had felt right between the two. They had been growing closer after becoming rangers together and having the same element, but the past couple weeks, their relationship had grown significantly.

His voice came out as a whisper. "You look so beautiful when you smile." Gia turned to look at him and he couldn't help himself. He leaned in to kiss her.

Gia did not protest and kissed him back. Maybe some things in her life were bound to suck, but Jake was not going to be one of them. He was a great guy, and he showed it by how much he cared for his teammates. He often took Gavin to his appointments too, since he had a car and Emma was usually busy. Gia admired how Jake always gave everything he could to the people he cared about.

It would have been an amazing and romantic moment, if it weren't for Vrak interrupting them. He blasted the couple, and they rolled to a stop a distance away. Gia dusted herself off as she stood and pulled out her morpher.

"How did you find us here? There's no one within miles of us."

Vrak just laughed. "You rangers have always underestimated me. I would have been grateful for that if it wasn't so insulting. Your morphers give off an energy since they are consistently connected to the morphing grid. Nowhere is safe from me. I've found a way to track those signals and triangulate positions from them. I can't know exactly where you are, but I can find the general vicinity. It's only a matter of a little searching and patience from there."

Jake felt an inward sense of panic. Vrak had found a way to locate them as long as they had their morphers on them... and they always had their morphers on them. Before he could ponder the potential repercussions of this new development, Vrak tried his hand and blasted at them again. Jake and Gia morphed and jumped into action.

The worked cohesively as they battled him, and successfully drove him back. Before anything could happen, Vrak teleported away. Gia moaned in frustration. "Everytime we start getting the better of him, he tucks his tail between his legs and runs. How are we ever going to beat him if he's too cowardly to fight?"

Jake sighed. "I don't know. But we need to call the others. Now."

As soon as the rangers had all been teleported to the Command Center, Jake and Gia relayed the story of their encounter with Vrak, minus the kiss of course. They didn't need to know about that yet. Troy worriedly turned to Gosei.

"If he can track us when our morphers are on us, then what's to stop him from finding the Command Center?"

Gosei's eyes lit up to respond. "No need to worry about the Command Center. It's completely cloaked, and the signal from your morphers cannot be detected when you are within these walls. However, I must caution you that when you are outside of the Command Center, it appears you're fair game. Vrak can see you when the signal isn't cloaked."

Noah glanced at the rest of the team. "We're going to have to be on extremely high alert starting now. And we should try to stick together as often as possible. That way, Vrak won't be able to pick us off."

Gia frowned. "If he were trying to pick us off, and I mean this in the most positive way, why didn't he? Jake and I were completely alone and secluded. If he had come down with an insect and some extra Loogies, I think we might have been finished. And we know he has those kinds of numbers at his disposal. Jake and I would have been too far away for you guys to help in time."

Troy nodded in agreement. "Gia's right. He could have easily picked you off, but didn't. I think he's planning something big, and it's suspicious he didn't take his shot when he had the chance. We need to be extra cautious and aware starting now. We can't pull what you guys did and go out of range of help. If we are going anywhere by ourselves or with one other team member, we need to remember to stay within a reasonable distance of the others in case he decides to make an appearance."

Emma shifted nervously. "So you're saying nowhere aside from the Command Center is safe? What even is the point of telling us that he can see us at all times and not doing anything to capitalize on it?"

Everyone's eyes turned to the blue ranger as he spoke. "The encounter with Jake and Gia was all an attempt to get inside our heads. And so far, it's working."


	20. Chapter 20

Noah had just teleported out of the Command Center to an adjacent street near his home. He never liked teleporting too close for fear of being spotted. He didn't know what he was going to do about his parents, though. If Vrak could track their morphers, that meant he knew where all five of the rangers lived. He could show up at any time and hurt their families. The rangers couldn't just spend every night together without arousing suspicion from their parents, so it was just a risk they were going to have to take.

If Vrak showed up at someone's house, the rest of the rangers would just need to be alerted as soon as possible and provide reinforcements while the targeted ranger held him off and tried to divert his attention.

Needless to say, none of the rangers got good sleep that night. Luckily, Vrak hadn't tried anything, but that didn't mean he wasn't capable of it.

Noah was on his way to the computer lab at school, where he planned to meet up with his friends. They had all agreed to come an hour before school started and stick together, so they could spend as little time apart as possible. Noah's fears came into fruition as he saw Vrak materialize in front of him. He was just two blocks away from the school and his friends, but unfortunately, that was two blocks too far.

Immediately, he morphed and sent out a distress call through the morpher. Hopefully, his friends would be there soon. The blue ranger would have to stall until they arrived. He was a competent fighter, but did not want to try his hand one-on-one against the alien.

"What do you want, Vrak?"

"Oh nothing, blue. I'm just scoping out the situation. I can track all your movements, and sometimes I just watch without causing a fuss. I see everything now. Sometimes I'm watching, and you aren't even aware."

Noah muttered under his breath. "Dude is like a creepy killer Santa Claus."

Vrak continud with his monologue. "I have big plans in the works, but it requires me to learn everything I can about you rangers. What makes you tick. Where you go to feel safe. What you're up to during the day. I have been studying up on your families, your passions, your mannerisms... everything. Nowhere is safe."

"You're just trying to get in our heads, Vrak. We know that, and it's not going to work."

Vrak smirked. "You sure about that? Because as far I'm concerned, it already has."

With that, he blasted at the blue ranger. Luckily, Noah saw it coming and rolled out of the way. As he pulled out his Shark Bowgun to retaliate, he turned and saw Vrak had disappeared. At that moment, the rest of the rangers appeared and saw an empty battlefield with an unharmed blue ranger standing confused.

Troy approached cautiously. "What's going on? We got a distress call from you, Noah."

Noah just turned to the rest of his team. "Something seriously messed up is going on here."

-0-

After Noah had explained what happened during his encounter with Vrak, the rangers took it as a cautionary sign and continued through their school day, attached at the hips. Noah was separated for just ten minutes on his walk to school, and he had been attacked. It pained them and was difficult to manage, but no one could be alone from the group in any circumstance.

They met up during lunch and discussed in hushed voices. Jake suggested something troubling.

"What if he really is picking us off, but he's just not finishing the job?" Gia looked at him as if a third eye had grown on his forehead.

"Do you understand how stupid that sounds?"

Noah cut in. "I think Jake might actually be onto something. He said he was trying to learn everything about us. He must have been watching you or Jake, and saw you two were alone. That's when he decided to strike. This morning, he must have been watching me and struck when I was alone too. There's no rhyme or reason, but there hasn't been a repeat attack. After our meeting in the Command Center, Gia and Jake both went home by themselves. That would have been an opportune moment for him to strike, but he didn't need to. He already got inside your heads when he attacked the first time. Everything is a mind game with him."

Troy shifted uncomfortably. "So what you're saying is... He's not going to stop this until all of us have had an encounter with him? That means Emma and I are next in line." Emma shuddered. "So I guess that means you and me can't go anywhere alone. The rest of them are probably safe since he's already come at them, but we haven't been hit yet."

The red ranger nodded. "If we have to separate from the group, we should travel in pairs or groups of three. Especially, Emma and me. If he does plan to hit us, I want it to be us two against his one, as opposed to a straight one-on-one fight. Even though he hasn't tried to seriously hurt us yet, it doesn't mean he won't try to with you and me. I'll walk you home today, then teleport to the Command Center and let Gosei know what's going on. He can teleport me to a nearby street and I can run home from there."

Emma shook her head. "We should do that the other way around. You can't teleport straight into your house because your parents will see, but I can teleport straight into mine. Gavin already knows about the ranger thing, so it'll be safer if neither of us have to walk, even if it's a small distance from the side street to the house."

Gia nodded. "Okay, so buddy system starting now. No one goes anywhere without having another ranger with them. In Troy and Emma's case, try to stick together as much as possible." She gestured to herself, Jake, and Noah. "Maybe one of us three could tag along whenever possible to try and discourage him from doing anything. Since he's already gotten us, maybe he won't want to try anything if one of us is there."

The rest of the rangers nodded in agreement as the lunch bell rang. They all waited until everyone was ready and left as a group.

-0-

After school, Troy and Noah had accompanied Emma to the Brainfreeze for her shift. She felt bad forcing them to stay there the entire time doing nothing, but the boys insisted. They said they would just work on their homework until Emma's shift ended. After she and Troy walked Noah home, they started off in the direction of Troy's house. Once they arrived and he was inside, Emma teleported straight to the Command Center.

The pink ranger debriefed Gosei on everything that was happening, and then had Tensou beam her straight into her house. That way, there was no extra walking alone that she had to do.

However, as soon as she arrived in the living room, she was met with horror.

Vrak wasn't in her house, but Gavin was having a seizure.


	21. Chapter 21

Emma immediately sprang into action, turning Gavin on his side and reaching for a pillow to cushion his head. When she had tried to learn more about basic medical care, her class taught her what to do in the event of a seizure. She frantically tried to remember everything, and once Gavin's seizure had stilled, she dialed 911 immediately. Gavin had never seized before, but with the extent of his tumor and his condition, Emma was honestly surprised it hadn't happened sooner.

Still, it was extremely stressful for her to teleport straight into the middle of a seizure. She was so worried as she rode in the back of the ambulance that, in her haste, she didn't notify her teammates what was going on.

Meanwhile, in Troy's house, he paced his room with worry. He knew Emma would be teleported straight home after leaving the Command Center, but he still wanted to make sure she made it safely. With them being the last two, he wanted to be sure nothing happened. He was the leader of the team, and felt it was his responsibility to keep his rangers safe. He felt horrible for letting Emma be the one to go alone. Troy had texted multiple times and called, but there was radio silence on the other end. This was extremely unlike Emma.

His worry clouded his judgement and he broke every single rule the team had come up with at lunch. Troy threw on a jacket and some sweats and started running to her house. If there was trouble, then it would be especially bad since he knew Gavin would be home at this hour. If Vrak didn't already know about Gavin and how he could be exploited to get to Emma, he would surely know now.

Troy pumped his legs as fast as they could go, but when he arrived at the house, he found the front door unlocked. His stomach turned. He entered cautiously and morphed just in case. His worry escalated even further when after a thorough search of the house, he still came up empty. As he went back downstairs and attempted to contact his teammates, he was met with Vrak in the kitchen.

Vrak immediately shot at Troy's hand and knocked his morpher free before he could send out a distress signal. He rushed past Troy and kicked it far away.

"My research indicates this is the pink ranger's house, so imagine my surprise when I teleport in and find the red ranger already morphed. Where is she?"

Troy ground his teeth in anger. "I should be asking you that."

Vrak laughed. "I don't have her, despite what you may think. I came here to get her, but it appears I've lost her signal. She's nowhere near. But I found you, and that's equally worth it."

The red ranger seethed. "Cut the crap, Vrak. We know what you're up to. Stop playing games and fight like a real warrior. Trying to study us and find our weaknesses, and picking us off, is a coward's way to fight."

The alien once again laughed in his face. "And whoever said I wasn't a coward?" He blasted at Troy, and it connected. The red ranger went reeling back and smashed into Emma's kitchen cupboards. As he started to pick himself up and fight back, Vrak kicked him in the stomach.

"Stay down. I have a pink ranger to find."

Troy tried to get up and chase after him, but Vrak had already teleported out. He ran for his morpher and called the rest of the team. "Guys, we have a situation."

A short time later, everyone aside from Emma was assembled in the pink ranger's living room. Gia was pacing nervously. "Vrak didn't have her, but he would have found her by now. But it doesn't make any sense. Why would she just go completely missing if Vrak didn't take her? And if he had found her, why haven't we gotten a distress signal from her yet?"

Jake looked around. "And where is Gavin?"

Troy shook his head. "I have a bad feeling about this. I don't know what's going on, and Emma could be anywhere. But Vrak has gotten to all four of us now, and he's looking for Emma, so he won't want to attack us. That means we can split up. Gia and I will look on the east side of town, Noah and Jake take the west. Keep your morphers on and close in case one of us needs to call or report."

The rest of the rangers nodded and teleported out. Troy asked Tensou to track Emma's morpher, but for some reason, his sensors indicated her morpher was turned off. The red ranger sighed. "Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe that means Vrak can't track her either."

Gia clenched her fist nervously. "Let's hope. Come on, let's start looking."

-0-

With all the stress of Gavin seizing and being rushed to the ER, Emma was not in her right mind. The events of the day had completely taken a back seat, and her worry for Gavin was put at the forefront. He had just gotten out of his initial examination and had been admitted to the observation section of the hospital. Emma sat by her brother's bedside and held his hand as she waited for him to wake up. She was at least grateful that they were lucky enough to land a single. Emma wasn't sure she wanted to be stuck in a hospital room where Gavin had a roommate.

The doctor explained that the tumor was expanding and cutting off most of the blood circulation to select areas of his brain. When the blood supply gets cut off like that, it tends to cause minor seizures. It wasn't killing him yet, but if it worsened, it could. For now, the seizure was a warning sign. Emma was worried because his condition kept worsening, and got lost in thought as she pondered what they were going to do about it. If they could even do anything at all.

She was jolted from her thoughts as her morpher beeped. She had left it in her bag and placed it on the table opposite the bed. Mentally, she kicked herself for forgetting to update her team and figured she should call them.

As she stood to cross the room and get it, Vrak appeared in front of her.


	22. Chapter 22

The first thing Emma did was position herself in front of her brother. Vrak had come to attack them in the hospital, and he was especially vulnerable. If it meant saving his life, Emma would gladly take a blast unmorphed. Vrak kept his blaster trained on the two as he started inching his way towards the beeping morpher.

He gestured to the boy on the bed. "And who might this be?"

Emma glared with a fury and hatred she had never felt before. "Get the hell out, Vrak."

"Oh, but now I'm curious. I have only watched the other four, I was just getting to you. I don't know much about you yet. So I ask again, who is this boy?" As he said this, he grabbed Emma's bag and rifled through until he found the morpher. Mid-ring, he shut it off. "Looks like your friends won't be able to track you or come to help. It's just you, me, and him."

The pink ranger stood her ground and continued to rotate so that she was consistently in between the blaster and her brother. "You haven't actually hurt any of us yet. I know you're just trying to get into our heads. Well, congratulations. You're in mine. You can unsuccessfully blast me once, teleport out, and go now."

Vrak laughed. "Well hold on now. That would just be no fun." He summoned a device, and continued to threaten the siblings with one hand, as he hacked the hospital database with another.

He typed in the room number, and immediately all of Gavin's information came up. He read it off the screen. "Gavin Goodall. First admitted for treatment of a neuroblastoma. Transferred from Paris Medical Facility. Doctors unenthusiastic about his chances of survival. Recently admitted to Observation for a seizure. Son to Benjamin and Olivia Goodall, and brother to Emma Goodall."

He smiled as he looked at the boy. "Brother, you say? I have been trying to study everything I could about the human race through you five rangers. I have been watching and trying to see your mannerisms and moves. But biological testing could be interesting. Just studying your social behaviors is not enough for what I have planned. It says here your brother should have died years ago. It's miraculous he's even still breathing. This is a sickness that not many overcome, and he has had it since he was a baby and lived until now. I would like to know why. That could give me the key to defeating you rangers, or I could use the research and testing to make myself stronger."

Fear flooded Emma's body as she realized Gavin was now a target, even more so than she was. Before Vrak could free his hand of his device, she did the only thing she could think of. She ran and tackled him away from the bed. Vrak was so startled that he stumbled back with the momentum. As he tried to recover, Emma quickly ran for her morpher and got it back online. She immediately morphed and sent a distress signal.

The other four rangers were notified by Tensou as soon as the morpher had been turned back on, and started running to the location of the signal. A pit settled in Gia's stomach as they turned and made for the signal. If the siblings were at the hospital when Vrak found them, something was seriously wrong.

Emma fought with unprecedented strength. All she had to do was see Vrak threatening Gavin and it was the end of the line for her. Vrak had never gone toe-to-toe with one of the rangers for this long in close combat. He always would have bested them by now. The pink ranger was giving him an unexpected run for his money, and he didn't like it.

All of the commotion in the room prompted security to come to Emma's floor. They kicked the door open only to see a power ranger already in combat with an alien. They tried to help by shooting Vrak with their bullets, but of course, the bullets bounced off harmlessly. All Vrak had to do was spin around and aim his blaster at them before they took off running. They decided if a power ranger was already there, they were not needed.

Gavin's mind was returning slowly to consciousness, but it was a little foggy. However, the second he heard bullets going off around him, he jolted awake and was not greeted with a pleasant sight by any means. Emma was locked in combat with Vrak by herself, and it didn't look like she could hold on for much longer. He had no idea how long the battle had been going on for, but she was wearing herself thin and he could tell.

He didn't want his sister to have to keep glancing at him and worrying about him getting hit by collateral damage, so he got up and hid behind the bed. His body wasn't quite ready to move yet though, so what he hoped would be a quick movement into hiding ended up being more of a slow motion roll off the bed. Out of the corner of her eye, Emma saw movement from her brother and was extremely relieved to know he was awake and okay. She decided she could celebrate another time, though.

Vrak saw movement too, and decided to take his shot. Emma was momentarily distracted by her brother's awakening, so he managed to power up his blaster and it connected. Emma was sent reeling back and crashed hard into Gavin's heart monitor. Sparks flew as she slammed hard into the machine. She powered down upon impact and clutched her stomach in agonizing pain. Gavin saw the hit his sister just took and rushed over to make sure she was okay.

Emma saw Vrak aim his blaster again, and pushed her brother back, trying to stand in front of him. The urgency of the situation allowed her body to move, but the pain she was feeling stopped her from getting where she wanted to go. She was only able to get up halfway and somewhat shield him before she heard a blast. Emma braced herself, but didn't feel any impact.

She tentatively looked up and saw the rangers firing at Vrak from outside the room. Noah landed a shot with his Bowgun and Vrak was sent flying. He landed close to Emma. Her body screamed in protest, but she had so much adrenaline pumping through her that she was able to ignore it momentarily. Emma lunged for Vrak's blaster, still unmorphed, and tried to strip it from him. She knew as soon as he lost it, he'd leave. And if he didn't, he would at least be much easier to take down.

She successfully managed to bat it away but before she could get far, Vrak struck his leg out and kicked at her knee with every last ounce of strength he could muster. Everyone heard the resounding crack as Emma went down hard, and she screamed in pain. Gia lost all semblance of control when she saw her friend go down, and charged straight into the room to run at Vrak. With the bed, Gavin, and Emma already in there, the room was extremely cramped and didn't allow for a lot of movement.

Gia didn't care, though. She plowed straight through the excess machines and pushed aside the chairs as she tried to get to Vrak. He knew the yellow ranger could finish him since he was without his blaster, so right as she was about to reach him, he teleported away just in time.

The yellow ranger used every single colorful word in her vocabulary before she slammed the floor and screamed in frustration. She heard Gavin cry out for his sister, and was reminded that Emma needed help. Everyone ran into the room and converged on the siblings to make sure they were okay. Emma was writhing in pain at her obviously broken leg. Her knee had been completely blown out, and in an attempt to break her fall, she had dislocated her wrist and shoulder.

Some of the doctors had come out behind their cover to check on the patients in the room and upon seeing her injuries, insisted she get treated. Emma, despite all the pain she was in, knew that wouldn't be possible. They were barely making enough to scrape by for Gavin's treatments. She looked pleadingly at Gia and tried to communicate that she needed Tensou instead.

The yellow ranger looked to the doctors and shook her head. "I'll take it from here." With that, she teleported herself and the rest of the rangers out of the room.

Gavin was left to stare blankly at the spot where his sister had been, and his heart raced. His blood pressure and heart rate had skyrocketed upon being under attack and watching Emma get hurt protecting him, and that put his body under extreme duress.

He felt himself blacking out and collapsing to the floor. The last thing he heard was a doctor screaming.

"I need help! He's seizing!"


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: Thank you so much for your kind words and reviews. I am continuously blown away by your support of the story. The feedback is amazing and it's been such a genuine help. Your loyalty as a reviewer is touching, thank you for everything. I will do my best to hopefully satisfy your expectations :)**

Gavin's mind slowly drifted back into consciousness, and he cracked his eyes open. His throat was dry, and he could feel his motor functions were slower than usual. He tried to sit up and look around, when he felt a hand gently push him back down to the bed.

He turned and saw it was Gia. Immediately, everything came back to him in waves. His seizure, waking up in the hospital, Vrak's attack, and Emma getting hurt. When he saw Gia and not Emma, he freaked. Gia tried to placate him.

"Gavin, calm down. Emma's in the Command Center recovering. She asked me to come watch over you so that you wouldn't wake up alone. Emma is strong, she'll be fine."

Gavin wilted into himself, feeling miserable. "She keeps getting hurt because of me. Emotionally, and physically. I wish she would just look after herself."

Gia laughed, though it was mostly humorless. "She'll start prioritizing herself the day hell freezes over."

As she said that, Troy and Noah teleported into the hospital room. Gia looked to them, asking for an update. Noah responded first. "As expected, she'll be okay. The blow to her leg completely shattered her knee, and if it were anyone else, the damage would have been irrevocable. But because of Tensou, he was able to surgically re-structure it and once she gets a cast, she should recover full function in her leg. Out of all of us, Jake is physically the strongest, so he stayed back to help try and pop Emma's shoulder and wrist back into place."

Troy sighed. "They'll be here as soon as Emma gets her cast set. Noah and I just wanted to leave before Jake tried to fix the dislocations; we've seen her in enough pain." Gia and Gavin took in the information. He started asking about what had been going on recently that led Emma to come home in such a rush, when he was seizing.

The rest of the rangers caught him up on the situation, and he was visibly shaken. "For some reason, when he came to attack, Vrak was targeting me. Do you think that has anything to do with him tracking and watching you guys?"

Troy nodded. "I think it has everything to do with it. Emma might know more, once she gets here. We came in the middle of them fighting, but he probably gave some kind of indication as to why he needs us, or you for that matter."

The blue ranger pointed out the fact that since Gavin was being targeted, the game was changing. "We need to have at least one ranger with him at all times, and with Emma working crazy shifts at the Brainfreeze, we're all going to have to step up. Now that Vrak is watching us closely, he'll know where to find Gavin. Our best shot at protecting him is being with him."

Gia readily agreed. "I worry about what this means for our parents, though. If he can track us, he knows where we live. How are we going to protect ourselves, Gavin, and everyone we love all at once? My mom's already been taken from me, and if I lose my dad to this war, I don't know if I'll make it."

Gavin shook his head. "I don't think you need to worry about anyone else. For some reason, he seems to be fixated on me. That sucks, but at least it means he's not coming after anyone else."

At that moment, Jake teleported in, helping an obviously injured Emma try to operate her crutches. She looked like she was about to fall and pitched forward, so Gavin tried to sit up in time to steady her. Instead, the blood rushed to his head and he was overcome with dizziness, while Jake managed to catch her.

Gavin leaned over the bed to the bedpan, and emptied his stomach of its contents. Emma looked worriedly at her little brother as she gave up on her crutches and hopped over using her good leg. Her hands circled his back as he heaved. She looked to Gia with a question in her eyes. "Has a doctor come in yet to give an update on how he's doing?"

Gia shook her head. Just looking at the siblings was devastating. Gavin was just a kid, and he was living through something that no one deserved to go through. Emma was hardly any older. And she barely even recognized her own injuries because she was so worried. In that moment, Gia felt an inexplicable wave of anger towards their mother. She was aware that Olivia was doing all she could to keep the siblings alive and send funds, but though the two needed money, they needed a mom more.

No kid should have to go through what either of the two were, especially alone, and it was physically hurting Gia to see them wrecked like this. Their father was the last person in the world who could help them, and the rangers were doing what they could.

It just simply wasn't enough.

Gia had half a mind to call Olivia, but didn't even know how she could reach her. Even if she did though, she had to respect Emma's wishes not to see her mother. Though Gia was not happy at all with Mrs. Goodall's choices, she recognized that the siblings needed her. It was a tough situation for everyone involved.

Her contemplation of the situation ended when a doctor came in. He looked worried at the sight of Emma's cast, and was one of the doctors who had run in to help after Vrak had left.

"Emma, what happened? The rangers just took you away before we could do anything. I'm glad you still got treated."

Emma did her best to give him a small smile, though she was sure it wasn't that reassuring. "Don't worry. They took me to some place that I would assume is where they go to patch up their wounds after battles. Since my injuries were caused by a ranger attack, they felt they had to take care of me."

"Your knee looked pretty bad... I don't mean anything by this, but I'm surprised it was even salvageable." He motioned to the cast on her leg.

The pink ranger bent the truth a little to avert suspicion. "It was apparently just a bad break. One of them reset it for me, and stuck a cast on it. They said it would be fine."

The doctor eyed her curiously. "The rangers have medical training?"

Emma nodded. "I guess they know the bare minimum. It makes sense though, with the job they have to do." Finally, the doctor seemed to be satisfied with his interrogation and turned to Gavin.

Emma internally sighed with relief.

"Gavin's tumor has been causing a lot of external health issues for him, and the seizures are unfortunately one of the side effects. The first time, his blood supply was being cut off by the tumor, which caused the brain to seize. The second seizure was likely due to the attack. He was in an extremely frightful situation, and I'm sure seeing you get hurt and kidnapped by the rangers did not help his cause. The stress and bodily duress was too much and he seized again. For now, he's okay, but if he starts having too many, it could lead to permanent brain damage. We're keeping him an extra couple days to monitor him.

I want him to stay away from anything that could potentially trigger a seizure. High pressure situations, anything that would cause him to feel nervous, things that are stressful for him, etc. The less risks we take, the better. As for the neuroblastoma, the current treatment seems to be working. It was growing rapidly, but it has completely stagnated since we upped his radiation and chemo. Hopefully, we'll start to see the tumor shrink. And if it gets small enough, we could try surgically removing it."

Emma nodded as she tried to take all of it in. If things continued as they were in terms of Gavin's treatment, he could get a surgery that would potentially leave him tumor-free. They just needed to keep him away from potential stressors, which in their line of work, would not be easy. But at least for the first time in a while, things were not looking so bleak for the siblings.

The doctor left to let the teens talk things over, and the rest of the rangers went home. With news of Gavin becoming Vrak's new target, they worried less about having to travel everywhere in partners. But still, they were worried about their parents and wanted to check on them. With Gia having recently lost her mother, all of the rangers were on high alert. They were reluctant to leave Gavin and Emma alone, but figured Vrak wouldn't repeat attack so soon.

Emma sat in a chair by Gavin's bedside, noticing he had moved rooms. His previous room had been victim to the carnage of battle, and she assumed it was too messed up for patients to be in right now. She was relieved because that meant at least for now, Vrak no longer had access to Gavin's medical records since he didn't know what room he was in.

She relaxed slightly as she took her brother's hand and laid her head down beside him.

It had been a long day.


	24. Chapter 24

Emma had been sitting in the chair, trying to block out the pain. Because of the adrenaline and Tensou's painkillers, she hadn't felt the true lasting pain of her injuries. However, the painkillers had long since stopped taking effect, and she didn't have anymore. She shifted uncomfortably as she mentally tried to push through it.

Gavin felt her movement and began to stir. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Emma smiling at him.

"Hey Gavin, are you feeling okay?"

He punched her gently. "You can ask me that when your leg comes out of that cast. I can see you're faking your smile, and I know you're in pain. Is there anywhere you can get painkillers strong enough for that?"

Emma silently cursed her brother for being so observant. "I don't know. Tensou only gave me those painkillers for when he had to fix my knee and the dislocations. And I don't want to ask any of the doctors. They can't prescribe anything to me without having a check up first, and we don't have enough to pay for that right now."

Gavin visibly deflated. Once again, the entire financial situation was causing her to suffer. "On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is it?"

Emma laughed. "Probably a five. I'm serious, don't worry. I'll be fine."

Her little brother snorted loudly. "Yeah, so since you answered five, I should probably add another ten to that. I know you're trying to downplay it so I don't get stressed out and start seizing again, but you lying to me isn't going to help. Plus, you telling me not to worry is a load of bullshit. How am I supposed to not worry about you when you have to fight creeps like Vrak, who enter childrens' hospital rooms after they nearly die and attack them? When I saw you get blasted, I freaked. And it certainly didn't help to physically hear your knee get broken to pieces."

The pink ranger sighed. "I know. I'm sorry. He only found and attacked you because he can track me. Now, any of us being around you can put you in danger."

"Well, me not being near any of you is probably way more dangerous. If he finds me alone, I'll be defenseless. What does he even want with me anyways? Why can't he go pick on some other innocent child with a brain tumor?"

Emma sighed, knowing he was just joking, but still not liking the situation in the slightest. "I haven't talked with the others yet, but I think he's trying to make some kind of bio-weapon. He saw that you were born with a brain tumor and should have died, and the fact that you are still alive fascinated him. He wants to study you to see what makes you stronger or more resistant than other people, in hopes that he can either use that to make himself stronger, or find a way to counter it and take everyone out."

Gavin shuddered at the thought of his blood and genetics being used to kill everyone on the planet. "So he's trying to snatch me and what? Probe me? Like I'm some kind of alien?"

"Well, to him. You kind of are an alien."

Gavin just gave her a look.

"Seriously, don't worry about it. None of us are going to let him come near you. Nothing is going to happen. One near death in the hospital is slightly ironic, and also one too many. Just worry about yourself and getting better. The doctor did say that your prognosis has improved. There is a chance the tumor will shrink completely and they can surgically remove it. Since the day you were born, we've never been told that."

Her little brother kept staring at her. "The fact that you just told me to take care of myself is the most hypocritical thing that has come out of your mouth. Ever."

Now it was Emma's turn to fix him with a look. "Shut up. You know, if it weren't for me, you'd be dead right now." It was meant to come off as a joke, but both siblings knew there was truth to that statement.

Gavin squeezed his sister's hand. "Are we going to be okay?"

"I hope so. We'll try like hell to make things work out. Just keep fighting."

Gavin nodded and slowly drifted off to sleep.

-0-

A week had passed since Vrak's attack at the hospital, and the rangers' lives were slowly starting to settle down. Upon seeing Emma's cast, Ernie had sighed and asked her to go home, but she refused. He just shook his head and set her up at the register. Money was slower since she wasn't getting tips anymore, but she was grateful he was still letting her work.

Vrak had gone suspiciously quiet, so the rangers allowed themselves to relax a little. The constant threat on their loved ones was suffocating, but worrying about it all day would do nothing to help the situation. If he decided to make a move on their parents or at home, they had a plan and were prepared. The rangers just hoped it wouldn't have to come to that.

Word quickly spread about how the Goodall siblings had been attacked in the hospital, and everyone at school either looked at them like they were afraid, or pestered them incessantly with questions about the encounter. It took many confrontations and glares from Gia to get people to stop talking about it, but the talk never completely disappeared.

One of the more quiet lunches, the rangers were all gathered at their usual table, trying to eat in peace. People still came up to Emma and asked about what happened, but it happened with much less frequency than even a couple days before. As soon as Gia even glanced in their direction, they fled. Gavin was sitting with his friend Jackson, who had run into that bully some weeks before.

Jake was three bites into his sandwich when the dreaded sound of a morpher beep went off. He audibly groaned and muttered curse words under his breath as he took out his morpher and asked Tensou what was up.

"Rangers, there is a sighting of Loogies near the central plaza. They are attacking the civilians."

Noah questioned. "Is Vrak with them? Or any kind of monster?"

Tensou answered that there were only Loogies. The radio silence from Vrak seemed to be continuing. If he wasn't even willing to send down a monster, he was either desperate or plotting. Neither seemed all that great for the rangers.

The boys all grabbed their bags and ran, and Emma made to join them when Gia pushed her back down. "Are you insane? Your leg is still broken. You can't even walk without your crutches, there's no way I'm letting you fight."

Emma protested heavily, but was once again cut off by Gia. "You heard Tensou. It's only Loogies. What can you even do to help us? You only have use of one leg."

The pink ranger grumbled unhappily as Gia began packing her stuff. "This sucks."

Gia did her best to give her a reassuring smile. "You'll be back in a month. Until then, you need to stay benched. I don't want anything else happening to that leg while it's still healing, and neither does anyone else. We'll keep you updated on how the battle is going over comms."

With that, she ran out.

Gavin looked in her direction when he saw that she had stayed back from what was obviously a ranger encounter. He just gave her a sympathetic shrug, trying to say that though he felt bad she couldn't join, he was happy she wasn't in danger.

Emma just sunk down into her seat further and took a small bite of her salad.


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N: If you haven't noticed, I am going a bit out of order from the normal series. Please bear with me. I like having Emma's interactions not just limited to Gavin and Gia, so I'm bending the storyline a bit. Hope it's still enjoyable :)**

It had been weeks since the incident and Emma was finally almost back to full function and health. Tensou still recommended she wait another week before getting into any battles, and maybe just limiting her activity to training to get back into the swing of things. He told her to keep the cast for today, and that he'd remove it for her the following morning, at which point she could begin sparring again.

While she had been inactive, Vrak had luckily been inactive too. He sent down a couple monsters here and there, but it was still significantly less than usual. It appeared he was still recovering from having his plans foiled in the hospital, or he was taking extra time to plan his next move.

Today, Ernie watched as the entire group of friends rolled into the Brainfreeze to chat with Emma and catch up on some work. She had notified Ernie that her cast would come off tomorrow and she could return to walking, but for now, it appeared she would still be stuck at the register for the day. They had been inside for about an hour when he heard Emma's special ringtone go off.

He was about to let her run off to help Gavin, but saw she made no move to stand up, while all the rest of her friends left in a hurry. Emma looked longingly at her bag.

"Doesn't that sound mean Gavin needs your help?"

Emma started in surprise. She didn't think Ernie had been listening. "The... others are going to handle it. Not much I can do with this." She pointed helplessly at her leg cast, inwardly hoping Ernie would buy the lie. It seemed he did, so he returned his focus to the radio he had been fiddling with for weeks.

Finally, it crackled to life and immediately the news began playing. The panicked screams of people running and the news anchors ripped through the speakers. Ernie jumped in shock, and Emma stared at the radio, willing it to shut off. She did not want to hear about the helplessness of a situation that she couldn't fix. The screams of the people she couldn't save.

Somehow, the gods answered her prayers and the radio cut out. Ernie then decided to turn the TV to the news channel. The entire store watched, fixated, as four rangers attacked a monster that sent unstoppable swords flying at them. The anchors were discussing how the pink ranger hadn't shown up to the fight, and as the live footage rolled, they both speculated as to what the cause was.

"Well, she hasn't been seen in a battle for around five weeks. If you think about it, we haven't heard anything about her since then."

It was at that moment that Ernie turned skeptically to the pink ranger, sitting nervously at the register trying to ignore the TV. He thought back to the day, about five weeks ago, when Emma had hobbled in with crutches. Everything else fell into place for him.

The strange sounds and her running off. Her friends always wearing ranger colors. Them leaving so abruptly as soon as that weird noise came out of their bags. Now that he knew what was going on, he wondered how he hadn't figured it out sooner. Most of all, he worried for the poor girl sitting at the register, knowing that on top of school and her brother, she also had to balance ranger duties and work. She had always seemed exhausted and over-stressed, but she persisted in her need to work, so Ernie couldn't do anything to stop her. He wanted to help, and he knew this job was the best thing he could do for her.

He had always thought about trying to support her financially without her working ungodly hours, but he knew she wouldn't accept money she didn't earn. The teens were a great group. They had always been kind and respectful to him and other customers, and were loyal regulars. He had gotten to know all of them and even grown fond of them. But that meant he knew them well. And he knew Emma was not the kind of person who would accept his help without earning it.

Ernie had even considered calling Child Protective Services multiple times when he saw how rough Emma looked on sleepless weeks, scrounging for every dollar trying to feed herself and her brother. She had fed him some story about why her parents were working constantly just like her, so they couldn't be around. Something had caused Ernie to hesitate on calling them, and now that he had figured out she was a ranger, he knew he couldn't.

The girl was suffering, and he knew it. But he couldn't do anything to help her.

Emma looked miserable, trying her best not to watch the fight. But she could still hear the anchors announcing a play-by-play, and knew it was not looking good for her friends. Ernie took pity, and pulled the morpher out of Emma's bag. He called her over and handed it to her.

"I think you should go."

Emma saw the morpher in his hand, and was just about to deny it when Ernie interrupted her.

"Pink Ranger."

She sighed, and took the morpher. "I'll explain later. Please. I'm sorry I lied, it was just too dangerous for you to know."

Ernie waved her concerns aside. "No need."

Emma glanced at the TV, and the last thing she saw before she teleported to the Command Center was the blue ranger taking a nasty shot and falling to the floor. At that point, the camera crew became too nervous and began fleeing the scene.

By the time she had arrived at the Command Center and summoned Tensou to take her cast off so she could go help, the battle was over. For that reason, Tensou told her that he would still refrain from removing it. There wasn't going to be another attack the rest of the day, and he was already cutting it close by trying to remove it a week earlier than it should be. Emma had been promised removal on the following day, so he figured keeping the cast on the last couple of hours could only help. The rest of the rangers hobbled into the main room, nursing numerous injuries and cuts that they sustained in the battle.

Emma looked sadly at her friends. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there."

Troy laughed humorlessly. "This is no insult to your prowess as a ranger, but I'm not sure you being there would have helped much."

Jake nodded along in agreement.

Emma pulled out one of the first aid kits and began cleaning Gia up. After she finished, she helped the rest of the rangers disinfect and bandage their cuts. When Noah's turn finally came, he was nowhere to be found. The rest of the rangers had laid down to rest and recover, so she broached the subject.

"Do you guys know where Noah went?"

When she got no response, she looked around and found that all of her friends had already passed out. She sighed inwardly.

"Tensou, could you pull up Noah's morpher signal?"


	26. Chapter 26

Emma knew the fight was particularly rough through what she had heard and watched through Ernie's TV. It was probably extra difficult on Noah, having been directly confronted by the monster and defeated. When a ranger was singled out and beaten, it never felt good.

She had teleported to a nearby location that Tensou had sent, hoping that if Noah was taking time to himself, she wouldn't startle him. She fully intended to respect Noah's wishes for privacy if he asked her to leave, but she would feel terrible if she didn't at least check on him. The pink ranger felt like she was partially to blame for not having been in the fight at all, so she wanted to do everything she could to help her team in the aftermath.

Emma wasn't sure what she was expecting to find, but it certainly was not a thorn whizzing by her face as soon as she materialized on the forest floor. The only thing that saved her from a thorn to the face was her sharpened instincts. She ducked down, narrowly avoiding it, and recovered from the shock to see Noah swinging a practice sword wildly, trying to deflect a bunch of thorns he set up to attack him.

She had never seen him so intense before. Jake was usually the one always cracking jokes, but Noah had a dry humor and didn't tend to take himself too seriously as a result of always being around him. The only thing he really worked tirelessly at was his schoolwork. Emma was seeing a newfound intensity and focus from him, as he deflected all the thorns, that she hadn't even ever seen in training before.

The pink ranger was pulled out of her stupor though, when Noah cried out. She rushed over and saw his arm was dripping with blood, where he had been cut by one of the sticks of wood he had thrown in, to add onto the thorns. Noah was surprised to see her there, but wasn't necessarily shocked. He knew someone would be out to check on him, and lamented the bad timing. It wasn't his wish to worry his teammates. He just wanted to be better. Her seeing him like this probably did him no favors.

Emma fussed over his cut and managed to wrap it, along with his other cuts from battle beforehand, with the medical supplies she had brought in her backpack. Noah remained completely silent as Emma cleaned him up. Finally, when she finished, he sighed.

"Why are you here, Emma? You should go. I need to practice if we have any chance of beating this guy. And it's not really safe for you to just be standing around here. Any stray thorns or sticks could hit you."

Emma face soured. "Yeah, I know. Almost got impaled on the way here." When she saw he was about to comment on that, she interjected. "This isn't healthy, Noah. We win and lose as a team. We practice as one, too. You shouldn't take it upon yourself to beat him, we all need to work together. I know how it feels to be singled out and taken advantage of, but that doesn't mean you don't have people you can rely on. Tensou says I can get my cast off tomorrow. We'll be back to a full five-member team, and we will get him. You don't need to do this by yourself."

Noah sighed. "I don't know, Emma. I guess sometimes I just feel useless, you know? I'm the worst fighter on the team. I feel like the only reason this guy singled me out was because he knew that. If it had been Troy fighting against that spell, I'm sure he could have beaten it. Gia and Jake, too. But out of the four of us, he chose me, and I failed. Sometimes, I feel like all I'm doing is holding the team back."

Emma sat down on the forest floor next to him. "I know the feeling. Troy's the leader and he's been training forever. He's the best fighter and really smart when it comes to combat and strategy. Jake is the strength behind the team, and he's naturally athletic. He more than makes up for a lot of the muscle we need on the team, and he picks up on fighting really easily.

Gia has always been good at everything she's tried, even since we were kids. She never needed help adjusting to life as a ranger either, everything just fell in stride for her. And you are probably the smartest person I've ever met. You literally help Tensou design weapons and zords, and you can always think of new ways for us to succeed. It makes me feel like a nobody. Even now, I've been off the team for a month and a half, and it's like nothing's changed. You guys were just fine without me."

Noah was about to interrupt, but again, she cut him off before he could.

"Let me finish. Despite all those things, I can still recognize that everyone adds value to the team, and it doesn't work well with any of us missing. Including me. I guess I haven't really found my role in the team, but I do know that I have one. You're the same, Noah. Maybe you don't feel like you have an identity within the team, but the rest of us know you do. We know how valuable you are, and we know we'd be a total mess if you weren't with us.

I mean, just look around. You devised a way to replicate the monster's spell and practice against it with a stick and a bunch of thorns. None of us would have ever thought of something like this, let alone been able to make it actually work. You are not useless, and you shouldn't have to feel like you're in it alone. Because like it or not, you're stuck with us. And that means that whatever happens, we all win or lose together."

The blue ranger nodded and allowed the words to sink in. "Maybe you're right. Once the others wake up, let's invite them out here so we can all practice against the attack. You haven't trained or battled in a while, and the training couldn't hurt for any of us. I'll just practice a couple more times and we'll see if they want to join us."

Noah made to stand, but he could feel Emma's head drop onto his shoulder. She had been exhausted and overworked too, having to work insane hours to provide for Gavin while still keeping up in school and recovering from her injuries. As soon as she came to the command center, she had to take care of the others, and without rest, she still came out to the forest to make sure Noah was okay. He knew she hadn't been sleeping much either, on top of all that.

The blue ranger looked over and saw that the pink ranger was out cold. He was afraid to move, so he let her lay on his shoulder for a little while longer, before he was sure she was deep asleep and set her down on a soft patch of brush. He set up her backpack as a makeshift pillow and pulled out her jacket to cover her.

He texted the others to meet them in the forest when they were ready, and got back to practicing with his sword. Emma was right in saying the team should practice together, but that didn't mean he couldn't get in a little extra work while he waited for them to show up.


	27. Chapter 27

Emma was woken up to the sound of a soft crunching of leaves behind her. She looked up groggily to get her bearings and saw Noah in a distant clearing, practicing with his sword. She shook her head and stood up with the help of her crutches, slightly confused.

If Noah was way out in front of her, then what was making the sounds behind her? She turned around to see what was going on, and at that moment, she felt a kick to her back which sent her tumbling forwards.

She cried out and Noah immediately turned when he heard her in distress. He saw from a distance that Emma had been kicked away from her backpack and morpher, and was currently being surrounded by an army of Loogies. She still couldn't even fight that effectively because Tensou hadn't gotten to take her cast off yet.

Noah ran for his morpher and immediately contacted the others, before morphing and running out of the clearing to help her.

Emma found herself being surrounded by a bunch of Loogies, and knew fighting would be futile. The numbers were too much, and though her injury was basically nonexistent along with the pain, her movement was still limited by the cast.

However, she knew she couldn't just give up and fold either. Noah was only a little bit away and would be there to help soon. All she had to do was hold out until then. She stood up and firmly planted her good foot into the floor, and used her crutches as weapons against the incoming Loogies. Whenever one got close, she took her crutch and smashed it, sending it flying backwards and knocking over the ones behind as well.

This only worked for so long though, until the numbers began to overwhelm her. Emma had swung her crutch into some Loogies in front of her, but didn't see how close the ones behind her had come. By the time she turned around, they were already upon her. She braced herself for an attack, but none came. When she looked back up, it appeared the Loogies were now focused on fighting the Blue Ranger. Relief flooded through her as she realized Noah had finally made it over.

She collapsed on the forest floor, and watched in a daze as Noah's sword slashed and weaved through the Loogies. It appeared the training had already taken some effect and he was taking them down in a blur. She felt hands grip her arms and readied herself to swing again, when she realized they were friendly and not trying to hurt her.

She turned and saw Gia helping her up, while the boys went to help Noah. Her best friend frantically looked her up and down, looking for signs of injury. "Emma, are you okay? We got an alert from Noah saying that you were in trouble. Are you hurt? Is your leg okay?"

Emma just nodded. "I'm fine. You should go help Noah. If Loogies are here, that means the sword guy won't be far behind. I was hoping he would attack again when my cast was off, but it looks like that's not the case. I'm going to teleport to the Command Center and have Tensou take it off. Hopefully, you guys can stall until I make it back."

Gia nodded and made to run off, but not before hugging her best friend. "I was so worried when we got the call. I'm glad you're okay." With that, she charged towards the swarm of Loogies.

Emma hobbled over to her morpher as quickly as her injury would allow and teleported herself back to the command center. Tensou immediately wheeled over and got to work, trying to remove it as fast as he could. Emma watched the monitors anxiously as the rangers battled the monster from the previous day. But she had no reason to be anxious.

Noah's training in the forest had paid off, and when the monster singled him out again, the blue ranger held him off with no problem. Once he got past his spell, the rangers made quick work of him. By the time her cast was off, the rangers had all gotten into their zords and battled off his enlarged form without even needing to summon the Megazord.

The rangers ran into the Command Center in high spirits, while they all congratulated Noah for finding a way to beat the monster. They were in even higher spirits when they looked at the pink ranger and saw her cast was off. Their team was finally whole again. Emma made her way over to congratulate Noah, secretly reveling in the feeling of finally being able to walk again. It was something she would never again take for granted.

When she finally reached him, she engulfed him in a big hug. "I knew you had a role on this team. You used your intellect to devise a way to beat the monster's spell and you had the strength to see it through. I hope you don't feel totally useless anymore."

Noah laughed. "You were right, like always. I couldn't have done it without you. If you hadn't come down to keep my sanity in check, there's no telling what could have happened to me in the woods by myself." He smiled. "Next time, I'll include everyone in the fun."

Emma shot him a smile in return. "You better." She then checked her watched and groaned.

"I'm really sorry, guys. I need to go. My shift at the Brainfreeze started ten minutes ago."

As she teleported away, the rest of the rangers realized she was right. They had rested after their first battle, and had missed the entire school day. It was already four o'clock the following day, and they knew they were going to need to explain away their absence to their parents, as well as why they hadn't come home that night. Their parents were probably worried sick.

They all groaned as they tried to think of an excuse. Together, the rangers decided that after they notified their parents, they would meet at the Brainfreeze.

Emma was happy to see her friends walk in the door an hour later, and they were happy to just see her walking in general. When she came in for her shift, she explained what happened to Ernie, and he didn't question her at all about being a ranger. He just pretended like he had never found out, which Emma was indescribably grateful for. If he had pressed her, or worse, fired her for a perceived hindrance to her job, it would have been really rough trying to find another job that would accommodate her.

She should have known that Ernie would be gracious though. Throughout the entire time since she began working, Ernie had been extremely caring and understanding. Keeping her as an employee was still not something he was obligated to do though, so she made sure to thank him properly for everything he was doing for her and Gavin.

He brushed it off as always, and told her to get back to work. Her friends had a lot of school work to catch up on since everyone had missed the day, and were also trying to teach Emma some material during breaks. They ended up staying until the end of her shift, at which point the rangers decided to go home for the night. As Emma left and headed home, Noah caught her just before she left the mall.

"I just wanted to thank you again for what you did back there. You made sure I knew I wasn't alone and made me feel appreciated and important. It kept my head screwed on straight, and allowed me to bring down that sword monster."

Emma smiled shyly. "It's the least I could do."

Noah shook his head. "See, that's just it. A wise person once told me that even if I don't know my role on the team, others do and will help me see it through. The same can be said for you. Somehow, you can't see it. I don't know why or how that is, but you really have no idea how important you are to the team. You don't think you can fight well enough, or are smart enough, to pull your weight. But what you did for me is the exact reason that we would be lost without you too.

You may not be the brains or the muscle of this operation, but you're the heart. You always take care of us in battle, constantly putting yourself in harm's way to keep us safe, and you will get hurt so we don't. You take care of us outside of battle too, and always treat your injuries last, in favor of helping the rest of the team. You think we don't notice these little things, but we do. At least, I know I do. You are the glue that holds us together. Even with everything going on at home with your dad, you still managed to put everyone before yourself, and even now with Gavin, you are somehow finding a way to make everything work.

Not only that, but you make sure the rest of us know we have you in our corner no matter what. You support us tirelessly, and you don't give up no matter how bad the situation looks. You're the most loyal person I know. Even today, I'm not sure if even Troy would have been able to hold all those Loogies off with a messed up leg and two crutches, but somehow you held out until I got there. Maybe not because of your ability in battle, but because of your spirit. You're just as important to the rest of the team as any of us. And don't you ever forget it."

Emma thanked him wordlessly, afraid that if she said anything, she'd break down. The look in her eyes was enough to communicate the gratitude she felt to Noah. She wasn't aware, but that was exactly what she had needed to hear for so long. It felt like nothing was going right in her life lately, and the mounting frustration of feeling useless to the team was bringing her to her breaking point. Seeing the other rangers perform so seamlessly without her the past month and a half had not helped the situation either.

She turned to the Brainfreeze and saw Ernie was still inside. "I know we just left, but do you maybe want to grab something real quick? I'm sure he wouldn't mind. I'll make your favorite, Ernie will let me get it free."

Noah could see it was her way of thanking him without actually having to say the words, and gratefully accepted. "Who can turn down free fro-yo?"

**A/N: I don't know what I'm going to do with the solo scenes between Jake and Troy, but I always found this scene really meaningful from the actual series and wanted to expand on it. Hope you are enjoying some wholesome Emma interactions with the boys for a change. If you have any suggestions on what you want to see with Jake or Troy, feel free to PM me with ideas or leave them in a review :)**


	28. Chapter 28

It felt like the past couple months had passed by without Emma even being aware of them. After everything that had happened, life had moved so fast and she felt like she couldn't catch up. But the reality had set in that it was already almost April, and the school year would shortly be coming to a close. And also with that, came Emma's eighteenth birthday.

She felt like she had been waiting on it forever, to help her escape her father's abuse, but now that it was upon her, she had no idea what to do. They were still barely scraping by on funds check-to-check, and there was no way she would be able to move them out of her father's house. And unfortunately, as long as her father was paying the bills, she was still tied to him.

Emma hated that, but accepted her reality. Although the Brainfreeze was a great gig and Ernie was an even better boss, the paychecks left much to be desired in her current situation. She hoped that maybe once school was out, she could find a job that paid higher, or maybe take on another part-time job to help with funds and maybe find an apartment.

What worried her the most though, was that the monsters seemed to be gaining strength. It made her worry that soon, everything was going to come to a head and the rangers were going to have to face a final battle. The kind where they either win, or all die trying. The looming prospect concerned her to no end, and with everything else going on in her life, it was made even worse for her.

She was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of Gavin walking down the stairs. They were just about to leave for school. When she turned away from the eggs she was halfheartedly cooking to greet him, Gavin mock recoiled.

"Wow, you look horrible."

Emma frowned. "Thanks?"

Gavin laughed. "Sorry, but it's true. You look like a truck ran you over, and then once realizing you were under it, backed up again over your body."

The pink ranger punched him in the arm. "I wake up early this morning to make my sweet little brother breakfast before school, and this is how he thanks me? Rude."

Gavin wrapped his arms around his sister. "I'm sorry. I'm just worried about you. And if I don't make jokes about it, I won't be able to cope at all. Don't lie about waking up early. You didn't sleep at all last night, did you?"

Emma sighed. It seemed that nothing ever got past Gavin these days. "I told you not to worry about me. I'm fine."

Her brother led her to a chair at the table and finished frying the eggs. "You didn't answer my question, so I'll take that as a no. And stop telling me not to worry. You completely vanish without telling me, for a day and a half, after I see the rangers get destroyed by some sword throwing dude on the news, and you expect me not to worry when I see my sister looking like a crazed zombie from a crappy Lifetime movie?"

His sister couldn't help but laugh. "Glad to know you think so highly of me. Seriously though, I'm sorry I didn't call. It kind of slipped my mind. But everyone's fine and I finally got my cast off."

Gavin had been secretly happy that his sister was forced to sit out a bunch of dangerous battles because of her injuries, and was less than enthusiastic to hear she was back. He felt bad, but he hadn't even noticed her cast was off. She stayed out late the night before with Noah, and he had tried staying awake to greet her at the door, but his recent seizures had exhausted him.

He hadn't gotten the chance to see her yet. When he turned to hand her the eggs and get a better look, he was greeted by the sight of Emma frantically pulling out some homework she had apparently forgotten about. "Don't tell me you didn't have time for your homework. Again."

Emma sighed. "With everything going on, it's kind of hard to keep track of all my assignments. I worked on a little at the Brainfreeze yesterday with the others, but this assignment totally slipped my mind. I've had a lot going on recently."

Gavin set down the eggs and grabbed a pencil. "Lucky for you, your little brother is great at copying handwriting and forgery."

His big sister frowned. "Excuse me? Should I be concerned about how you discovered that skill in the first place?"

"No... It's probably better you don't ask." He grabbed a page of her english assignment. "If we split this, we'll finish in half the time."

Emma laughed. "You know, I don't feel all that great having my little brother do all of my homework for me. My honor and integrity have just about gone out the window by now."

Gavin shrugged, jokingly putting the pencil down. He was going to help her regardless, but he wanted to have a little fun first. "Would you rather me not help you and take an F instead?"

"Pick that pencil back up."

"But, I thought you said-"

"Pick it up. We have some english to do."

He laughed and started writing, in a perfect imitation of his sister's penmanship. "Yes ma'am."

-0-

Later that day, Emma was just on her way to turn in her english assignment (which she had done completely honestly and on her own, with no outside help), when she heard the muffled sound of her morpher coming from her backpack. She groaned. It had been a while since she was involved in an actual monster fight and though she was happy to be out on the field helping her teammates, she was not all that enthusiastic to risk injury again.

She made up an excuse to leave and hustled to the plaza, where there was an ugly female robot waiting for her and the rest of the rangers.

Noah stared in confusion. "Aren't we supposed to be fighting insects...? She looks like something that could have come from my garage."

Jake laughed. "Dude, I totally knew you built yourself robot girlfriends."

The blue ranger elbowed him in the ribs. "I meant that she looks like a robot. You know what... never mind."

At that moment, Vrak suddenly materialized in front of the team. "I decided to test out a little experiment. Insects are expendable, but robots can be repaired and reused an infinite amount of times. I figure it'll be more efficient this way, and just want to test out my new little creation."

Emma felt rage rise up inside her at her recent encounter with Vrak. Thinking about how he had tried to take advantage of a vulnerable kid, and planned to take Gavin to experiment on him, made her blood boil.

Without warning, she charged straight at him, and power consumed her as she ran. The energy summoned her suit of its own volition, and just as she was about to strike Vrak, she was stopped by the female robot and struck down.

Vrak took his foot and stomped down hard on Emma's exposed ribs. The force of the blow caused her to power down. She struggled to stand back up, but the wind had been knocked out of her, and Vrak was still pressing down on her stomach.

"Do not test me, Pink Ranger." He gestured to the robot. "Metal Alice was programmed with only one purpose: do whatever it takes to protect me. If that means killing you rangers, she will not hesitate." To accentuate the point, Metal Alice brought the tip of her sword to Emma's throat and pushed slightly until blood trickled out.

Emma froze, for fear of any movement causing the sword to impale her. The team was shocked at the way Emma had run in and attacked Vrak alone, but once they recovered, they immediately sprang into action upon seeing her in danger. Noah summoned his Bowgun and shot at Metal Alice, creating distance between that sword point and the Pink Ranger.

Gia took her blaster and shot at Vrak. She didn't hit him, but it forced him to step off of Emma so he could dodge the blast. Emma immediately rolled away as Troy and Jake ran in to follow up and attack Vrak while he was still on the back foot. Gia rushed over to her friend in concern, but it didn't appear that Emma had been injured too severely.

When Vrak sensed he was fighting a losing battle, he teleported out, leaving the rangers with Metal Alice.

"We will meet again. Next time, you will not be so lucky."

With that, she vaporized, and the rangers were left staring at an empty plaza.


	29. Chapter 29

After the school day finished, Gavin looked around worriedly for his sister. He had heard about the battle from one of his classmates, and was anxious to make sure she was okay. When he rounded the corner, he sighed in relief and smiled.

"Battle went well then?"

Emma turned at the sound of his voice, and he saw her neck, where it looked like she had been cut.

"Oh my god, Emma. What happened? Are you okay?"

She nodded. "I'm fine, it barely even pierced my skin. Nothing to worry about. It should heal within the next couple days. Come on, let's get you to your appointment. I gotta be at Ernie's in an hour, so we need to go quick."

Gavin sighed as she turned and walked out. He was frustrated because she refused to let him help, even when everyone could see that she needed it. She closed off instantly anytime Gavin showed any kind of concern for her, and it was hurting him to see her like this.

He followed behind in silence, neither of them saying anything until they got to the hospital. Emma squeezed his arm.

"I'll be here when your appointment finishes."

With that, she left and started heading off to the Brainfreeze. If she didn't run, she was going to be late to her shift. Though she knew Ernie would be okay with it, she didn't want to disrespect him like that. She only wanted to be late if absolutely necessary. Otherwise, it felt like she was taking advantage of his grace.

She walked in, out of breath, with one minute to spare. Ernie looked over and saw the mark on her neck. He was about to ask about it, but saw her face and decided against it.

"I need you on tables two, three, and four. The soccer team just finished practice and they all decided to come. I can't handle all of them at once."

Emma nodded as she threw on her apron and rushed to take their orders. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the soccer team left and Emma already looked exhausted. After not sleeping and the rough day she'd had, it was going to be an extremely hard shift.

Her spirits lifted slightly when she saw her best friend walk in the door. Gia saw there were only a couple others in at the moment, and Ernie was taking care of them, so she motioned Emma over to a booth. Emma smiled and gratefully walked over. Any excuse to take a break and unwind with her friend was one she was all too willing to take.

When she sat down though, Gia's face grew serious. "Emma, I wanted to talk about what happened today at the plaza. Why did you run off like that? They had you right where they wanted you, and if she hadn't decided to mess around first, Metal Alice could have killed you."

Emma's smiled dropped. The last thing she expected was a scolding from her friend. She hadn't told any of them about what exactly Vrak had said in the hospital room that day. Only she and Gavin knew the details of his plan, and she didn't want the rest of the team to find out. There was a chance they wouldn't let her fight at all, knowing she was emotionally impaired.

Judging from the day's events, that might have been a good decision, but Emma did not want to sit on the sidelines anymore.

"I don't want to talk about it, Gia."

"Emma, come on. Whatever is bothering you, we are here to help you through it. Gavin texted me earlier and he's worried about you, too. You can't just face everything in your life alone."

"I've done just fine with that up until now. I really do not want to talk about it. I'm okay, and I promise I won't recklessly run in again. Can we just drop it?"

Gia frowned. Emma usually wasn't so closed off. Whenever Emma needed help, Gia usually could see it immediately and was more than happy to do what she could to help. And Emma would let her. But lately, her friend had been shut off from the rest of the world.

"Seriously, you can tell me about what's going on. I-"

Emma saw a customer walk in and abruptly stood up. "Sorry, I need to go. I'm fine, Gia. Go home."

She walked off and Gia just stared at her sadly. From the moment Gavin had shown up at the plaza, she had known all along that Emma was going to reach a breaking point, and knew it would be soon. She just wasn't sure how to handle it, or how she could help her friend. It saddened her to no end to watch Emma struggle, and not be able to do anything about it.

Gia gave one last concerned glance in her friend's direction, before she left the Brainfreeze. There's nothing she could do to help in there if Emma wouldn't let her in.

Instead, she sent a text to her friend, so she could read it later.

_Gone to pick up Gavin. I'll bring him home so you don't need to go to the hospital. Just finish your shift and come home. Maybe we'll talk later. Always here for you, love you._

Gia started walking sadly in the direction of the hospital.


	30. Chapter 30

The following day, Gia kept stealing worried glances at her friend. Emma had not taken her up on her offer to talk, and she looked like she hadn't slept. Again. Gia couldn't remember a time since Gavin arrived when her friend looked healthy and well-rested.

Even now as she looked on in concern, she could see Emma's eyes fighting to stay open during their science lecture. Emma could feel herself drifting and jerked her head up, trying to find some way to help her stay awake.

It appeared that whenever it was important, her body would finally let her sleep, but when she actually tried during the night, her mind imprisoned her in a whirlwind of thoughts that refused to leave her alone long enough to drift off. In an attempt to stay awake, she tried twirling her pencil. It had been a skill she had never been able to successfully perform before, and she figured it would be a good way to keep her mind alert enough to not fall asleep.

She was completely unaware of the nervous stares Gia was giving her. In all honesty, Emma recognized that she needed help. She knew her situation was extremely bad, to say the least, and she was going to need someone to hold her up. She knew she needed the help, but just didn't know how to ask for it.

Since she was a kid, she had spent all of her childhood trying to make sure her father never touched her brother, and once Gavin and her mom left, she faced the abuse alone. Now that Gavin was back, it barely felt any different. Even though he was here now and her parents were sending funds, it still felt like she was alone. Emma had been giving up meals without telling him because she couldn't afford food for the both of them, and didn't want him to feel guilty for eating. So she hid that from him and pretended she was eating before she came home.

That contributed to her low energy. Even now that they were right in that cold season, the house had a severe chill to it. Her father was paying for electricity in the house, but the air conditioning and heating units had broken a couple months ago, and she was too afraid to ask for extra money to get it fixed. Gavin had not complained once about the cold, but she saw him shivering all the time and it broke her heart.

She offered Gavin her blanket to help him sleep, saying that he needed to stay warm and well-rested in order to keep him healthy enough to fight his tumor. If he was constantly shivering and not getting enough sleep, he would be too weak and physically exhausted to fight the sickness. Of course, he protested adamantly because he knew she needed it too, but Emma lied and said she had an extra in the master bedroom closet.

That was a lie, but her brother needed it more than her, so she just curled up under whatever jackets she could find and tried to make the most of it. That was part of the reason she couldn't sleep. Emma couldn't actually remember a time when she got a good night's rest, and even now she hadn't gotten a wink of sleep since her short nap in the woods with Noah.

Even now, being so close with her team and with Gavin in her life again, she still felt alone. And it was a trap Emma was all too familiar with. She wasn't good at asking for help, and didn't know what could even be done to make her situation a little easier.

She was shaken from her thoughts when the bell rung, signaling the end of class. As she was stuffing her binder into her bag, she heard her morpher go off. Emma sighed, knowing she was in no condition to fight, but also knowing she needed to go out there anyways. She resolved to herself that she would be safer, though.

Emma had promised Gia that she wouldn't run in like that again, and fully intended to keep that promise. To be honest, she wasn't all that eager to get beaten by Metal Alice again either.

The girls threw their bags on and raced to the city. Emma and Troy immediately went to work escorting the civilians to safety, while the other three rangers took on the incoming swarm of Loogies.

When everyone was safe, the pink and red rangers turned to see if there was anywhere they could help, but came up empty. That's when Troy felt himself being attacked from behind, and fell forward after a sword slash from Metal Alice. Emma turned and tried to fight with her Phoenix Shot, but it was to no avail. Metal Alice slashed at Emma's weapon and it fell from her hand, at which point the robot kicked Emma's legs out from under her.

The pink ranger ended up flat on her back, with the wind knocked out of her. Getting back up took supreme strength, especially since she was already so exhausted to begin with. She and Troy decided to try a double team, but again, they both ended up on the floor. Metal Alice's armor was tough to crack, and it felt like their attacks were having zero effect on her.

When the boys and Gia had finished clearing out the Loogies, they ran over to help, but they didn't have much luck either. Troy was slow getting back to his feet, and his sword was laying on the ground beside him. Noah was much more confident in his sword fighting abilities after his recent efforts, and took Troy's sword to try his hand.

He held his own fairly well, but the robot eventually got the better of him. She slashed him and he rolled to a stop on the floor, finding it difficult to get up. Jake and Gia tried to attack together with their power cards, but it was turned against them, and the rocks they had sent out ended up smashing right back into them.

The team lay on the floor, groaning, as Metal Alice laughed. "Master Vrak said you five would be a challenge. What a joke. If you five are the protectors of this planet, the earth is doomed." She decided she had toyed with them enough, and left the scene to report back to Vrak.

The rangers all groaned as they performed wellness checks on each other. Noah checked the time, and saw that they had missed the entire lunch period. Though he was sore and did not want to go back, his parents would flip if he missed another period. Troy and Jake agreed that their parents were starting to ask too many questions about their absences, and thought it would be best if they could make it back in time for math.

As soon as they teleported away, Gia turned to her best friend. "I'm sorry I confronted you like that in the Brainfreeze yesterday. I'm just worried about you, and it terrified me to see Metal Alice standing over you with a sword to your neck. I know you don't want to talk about it, and I respect that. And I know you won't do it again, so I'll drop it. But seriously, if you need anything, please let me know. I will always have time for you, no matter what."

Emma smiled and gave a halfhearted hug to her friend. "Thanks. I should get home. School is going to be out soon and I need to eat something before I actually faint. Gavin has an appointment later, and I feel like a little energy would do me a lot of good right now. I have another shift at Ernie's after, and I haven't been getting much sleep lately, so food is going to need to sustain me."

Gia nodded. "Well, Dad has been distracted with the suit against the drunk driver, so he hasn't really been keeping tabs on my attendance. We're already late for math, so we might as well just skip it. We didn't get a lunch either since we had to come out here to stop Metal Alice. What do you say we grab lunch? On me."

Emma immediately went to protest, but Gia stopped her. "I'm serious, Emma. Just this once, let me do something to help you." Her friend looked like she was about to protest, but in the end, accepted the offer gratefully.

Gia smiled. "The appointment isn't for another couple hours. Maybe after lunch, we could go on a ride. You haven't been on your bike in so long, and I'd be happy to get out to the forest again. Just like old times."

"When things were simpler."

The yellow ranger agreed sadly, and the two headed off for a lunch date, hoping that the day would feel a little less gloomy with food in their stomachs.


	31. Chapter 31

The girls did indeed feel much better with full stomachs, Emma especially. She hadn't been eating much since money was tight and thought Gavin needed food more than her, so it felt like the first time she had eaten a full meal in a while. Their spirits lifted considerably, and they headed back to Emma's place to grab the bikes.

They made the journey to the forest, with Emma in the lead. However, twenty minutes into their ride, Emma looked back then started speeding up for no reason, and Gia lost sight of her completely. She tried to catch up to her friend, and became worried when she saw Emma's bike laying on the floor.

As Gia hopped off to check out what happened, she noticed she was back to that clearing where she had been with Jake when Vrak attacked them. Emma knew the woods far better than her and always guided her, so it was an immense relief for her to see familiar territory.

When she looked around the clearing, she saw Emma's distant form sitting on the same bench Gia had been on weeks ago, staring out into the water. The yellow ranger started jogging, and was about to confront Emma about why she had sped ahead, potentially endangering both of them, when she saw her friend's shoulders shaking ever so slightly.

Immediately, any anger about her friend's recklessness dissipated and turned into concern. Gia approached slowly, so as not to startle her, and when she finally made it to the bench, she instantly held Emma as tears escaped her eyes.

"Emma, what's wrong? We were supposed to be riding to escape from the pain, not make it worse."

Her friend spoke, with a slight shake in her voice. "We've been riding for only thirty minutes, and all I can think about is Gavin. I feel worried that I might not make it back on time to take him to his appointment. I can't stop worrying that us being out here is going to make me late for my shift at Ernie's. I keep thinking about how Vrak keeps getting stronger, and my mind keeps replaying our battle with Metal Alice today.

BMX was such a strong passion of mine, and it was my escape from everything going on at home. But now, I can't even enjoy it. I've lost passion for it. And when we were riding, I looked back at you, and you had this bright smile on your face. The same one I used to have when I rode. But now, while I'm consumed with all these things, it feels like you're enjoying my passion more than me.

You learned it so we could spend time together. I loved you for that. I always wanted to be with you, because that meant I wasn't with my father. Being with you made me so happy, and the fact you learned this sport just to hang out with me made me so grateful. You were one of the first people to ever show me that I was loved, and our time as kids was sometimes the only thing that kept me fighting.

Now when we're out here doing something I used to enjoy not even six months ago, and should still be enjoying, I'm instead stuck thinking about how I'll never have a normal life. About all my responsibilites I have to take care of when I get home. About how I'm going to make enough money for Gavin to eat something tonight, let alone my dinner too. About how I'm ever going to get caught up on my school work, or how we're ever going to beat Vrak and end this war. It's so hopeless."

Emma turned to her friend. "I have lost all hope that things are going to get better for me. And I look back to the person I used to be. I was passionate and caring, and I wanted to save the environment. I loved nature and BMX, and I loved photography. My love for all those things has just been sucked out of me. I look at the old Emma, and I don't even recognize her. I don't know who I am anymore. And I can't remember the last time I felt happy, without a worry in the world. Was that before my dad started hitting me? Have I really not been happy since then?"

The tears started rolling down faster. "I don't even have a life of my own anymore. I need to provide for a whole human being, who is cancer-ridden and might die anyways. Then what? All of this will have been for nothing? We go through all this pain, just to lose him anyways? I go to school, then I take Gavin to an appointment. Then, I have to go work to put food on our table and make sure he can get treatments to stop him from dying and really making this all for nothing. I come home, skip my meal, and never sleep. I'm living the same day over and over again, and even on top of all that, we are constantly fighting monsters and trying to stop the world from being taken over by aliens.

The worst part is that I'm happy to do it. I put my entire life on hold to take care of him, and given the opportunity to go back, I wouldn't change anything. Him coming back has been the best thing to happen to me, and I love him so much that I'd gladly take on all this responsibility to see him live and thrive. But we're graduating this year, and I won't be going to college. I have already decided to take a gap year so I can keep working. Hopefully, by the time Gavin graduates, I'll have saved enough to get him into a good university. He is the brightest kid I've ever seen, and he deserves to have a normal life and go to college and do everything he wants to.

He can change the world with a good college education, and I want him to have that opportunity. Maybe that means the end of my life as I know it, and I'll be working horrible low-paying jobs until the end of time, but I'd happily sacrifice it all for him. But I don't even know how I'm going to survive this. Honestly. I don't even recognize myself, I don't know who I am. And between all these responsibilities and fighting for the entire human race constantly, I genuinely don't even know if I'll make it out of this war alive."

Hearing all of her friend's pent up feelings had been a shock to Gia. She was crying along with her friend, feeling so horrible for what she was going through. She didn't even know what to say. What does someone say to that?

This was the breakdown Gia knew had been coming. And the yellow ranger was just as unprepared for it as she knew she would be.

"Emma, I..."

As soon as she heard her friend's voice, Emma let her defenses down. It felt like she had been fighting for so long, since she was just a child, and she couldn't keep fighting anymore. Emma leaned into Gia's embrace and started sobbing uncontrollably. It was all Gia could do to just keep holding her.

When Emma finally calmed down, she tried to speak, but she was too exhausted with the effort of actually talking. Her voice came out in a whisper, but it was still heartbreaking for Gia to hear.

"I'm not enough. I don't feel like I'm enough. Not for Gavin, not for my parents, not for anyone. My dad hated me so much that he beat me everyday until I bled. Until my bones broke. And when given the opportunity to be free from it all, I still told my mom to take Gavin with her instead of me. And she just went. She didn't love me enough to fight for me. I know I told her to go to save herself and Gavin, but how hard would it have been to sneak me into the car? I could just run downstairs while she took Gavin. All we'd have to do is make it to the car, then we'd be safe. We could just drive and leave, and never look back. But I wasn't enough for my mom, either.

Even now, I'm not doing enough for Gavin. He never complains, and I love him so much for it, but I can hear his stomach grumbling all day. I try my hardest to get meals for him, and do everything for him, but sometimes the best I can do is some berries from the market. And he'll feel sick because of his tumor on some days, but he won't tell me because he feels like he's already burdening me enough. I'm doing my best for him, but that's not good enough. I don't even know what more I could do, but I know I have to do more.

He deserves to have a good life and be happy. He's my little brother and I want to give him the world, but I can't. Do you know how frustrating that is? No matter what I do, I am never going to be good enough to give him what he needs and deserves. There's already so much pressure.

I'm not even eighteen yet, and I have to provide entirely for someone else. If I miss even a single shift, my brother will go hungry and could potentially die if we can't afford treatment for the week. I am still just a kid, so why does it feel like sometimes I'm struggling more than most adults ever will? I'm only human, and I can only do so much. When is that going to start being enough?"


	32. Chapter 32

Gia did her best to console her friend. Emma had vented everything she needed to, and Gia was happy to be there for her. She recognized the value of Emma getting this all out of her system, but it was still hard because now that everything was out in the open, neither of the girls knew how to deal with it.

The yellow ranger pulled her friend in closer and gave her a loving squeeze. "I know that things are looking really bleak, but don't give up hope. We're all here to help you. I know that any of us would do anything for you, so whatever you need, let one of us know. This whole time, we've all wanted to support you and we will do anything in our power to help. Everything is so hard because you're doing it alone. We're here for you, Emma. I'm here for you."

Emma sighed. "The reason I ran after Vrak like that yesterday was because I got emotional. When he tracked down my morpher to the hospital, he saw that I was with Gavin, and wanted to find out who he was. He hacked into the hospital database and found out about Gavin's medical condition. Vrak knows that Gavin has survived years with a cancer that usually kills everyone who has it, and he has become fascinated on why that is. He wants to take Gavin away to experiment on him, hoping that he can find what makes Gavin different. If he can identify that, he's hoping he can use it in some way to make himself stronger, or reverse-engineer it into something that can kill the rest of the human population."

Gia's face clouded over with disgust and rage. "Emma, that's horrible..."

"I didn't want to tell you guys because I thought you'd bench me since I was too emotionally invested. Clearly, Vrak got in my head and I could have been killed because of my own recklessness. I know it doesn't mean much, but I really do promise I won't charge in like that again. I'll even tell the others about it the next time I see them, and whatever they decide is best for the team, I'll abide by. It's just hard for me to keep control when I know what kind of danger Gavin is in. And I worry that I'm not good enough, or even strong enough, to protect him. What's stopping Vrak from marching into my house anytime and taking my brother away from me?"

"Emma, I promise you, as long as I am still living and breathing, I won't let that creep touch a single hair on Gavin's head. I'm sure the other rangers feel the same. He's become like a little brother to all of us, and we care about both of you. Don't shoulder the burden of protecting him all by yourself. Whenever you're not around, we'll make sure there's a ranger with him at all times. We'll keep him safe."

Emma's voice was reduced to a hoarse whisper. "I just don't know what I'll do if I lose him."

Gia tried to rub soothing circles into her back. "You're not going to."

The girls continued to sit together for another half hour, staring at the water without saying a word. Finally, Gia broke the silence.

"Em, I know it doesn't feel like it, but you're doing enough. More than enough. I don't want you to ever feel like you've failed your parents, Gavin, or any of us. Your father is a fucking asshole, and that's why he was abusive. That was not your fault. And I think in her own twisted way, your mother does love you. She should have fought harder for you at every corner, I absolutely fault her for not trying harder, and she should have been the one protecting both you and Gavin. Not you protecting both of them. But she's doing all she can to make sure you guys are okay now. Maybe she's a little late, but she's trying her best to take care of you guys with the given circumstances.

And don't you ever feel like you've failed us, or that you're not pulling your own weight. I can say with certainty that none of us feel like you've ever let us down. If anything, we would be completely lost without you. Don't think I haven't noticed the way you protect me in battle. Or the others, for that matter. You'll take a blast if it means one of us doesn't have to get hurt. You are the most loyal and selfless person this planet has ever seen, and I really love you for that. I sometimes get frustrated because you never prioritize your own health or safety, putting all of us before you, but that's only because it scares me.

I'm terrified thinking about the possibility that you will get hurt in an effort to protect me. That idea haunts me constantly, and that's why I get upset. But I know that you won't ever stop looking after us because you care so much, and I am grateful to know I have someone so strong and passionate watching my back. I don't know what I've done to deserve having you in my life, but I couldn't imagine being without you. You're not just my best friend... You're my sister, and you've made me into a better person. I'll say it as many times as I need to in order to get it into your head, but you are enough."

Emma opened her mouth, but Gia cut her off. "I'm not finished yet. It breaks my heart to hear that you're giving up on your hope and your passions. Maybe you don't know who you are, but I still do. You're the same Emma I've always known. My caring, selfless, and kind best friend who does everything in her power to protect the people she loves. You're buried under all your responsibilites, but you're still the same person you've always been. Gavin's tumor is slowly shrinking, and when he gets it surgically removed, he will live cancer free. You have to believe that is going to happen, because without hope, what else is there? What other reason is there to keep going?

And when you can stop worrying about putting food on the table, or paying for treatments, a huge weight is going to be lifted from your shoulders. You're going to start loving all the things you used to love, because passion as strong as yours doesn't go away. You just need to keep fighting. You've given up everything in your life to take care of Gavin, and it will all have been worth it once you see him smile for the first time, without a tumor in his brain. But you need to make it to see that day. Okay?"

Emma nodded slowly. "You really mean all that?"

Gia gave her the most sincere look she could muster. "Of course I do. With every inch of my heart."

Emma continued to look out at the water as she scooted closer to her best friend. Gia's look of sincerity transformed into one of sadness, witnessing the way her friend was suffering.

"Maybe you really should call your mom. I give credit to the effort she's putting in overseas to send money, but you guys need a real mom here. You've basically gone your whole life without a mother taking care of you, and I now know how hard that really is. Everything about what she's loaded onto you is extremely unfair, and you shouldn't have to feel this way. Like you're not doing enough. Because you really are. You've put your entire life aside to take care of him, just like she asked, and it's hurt you so much that I doubt you'll be able to fully heal from it.

You keep talking about how you need to keep pushing because Gavin deserves a normal life, but so do you. Up until now, you've struggled more than anyone I've ever known, and you've had your entire childhood taken away from you. Emma, you said it yourself. You're not even an adult yet, and you're basically raising your little brother on your own. Your mom just expected you to be able to do all that by yourself, and asked you to put aside an opportunity for a happy and normal life because she couldn't make ends meet. She knows what you went through at the hands of your father, and it was wrong of her to ask you to take on all of this the second he got out of your life. She needs to get her ass over here and help you now."

The pink ranger shrugged. "I don't see what good that's going to do. Unless my mom can find a job here that pays more than what she's earning in Paris, nothing is going to change. In fact, it could even become harder. The only reason I'm able to do things so freely, especially with ranger duties, is because I don't have parents scrutinizing my every move. I know that maybe having her here could help at least emotionally if not financially, but I don't even want her to come until Vrak and the Warstar are gone. Plus, if she comes, that's another person who I'm going to have to protect, and I don't want any more of my family members to be put in danger because of me."

Gia muttered a string of expletives under her breath. "I swear on my life I am going to kill Gosei. I hate that he chose you for this, knowing everything else that was going on in your life. Having these kinds of responsibilities and an abusive father was bad enough, and he thought it would help to pile on the fate of the world too? I will-"

"Gia, it's okay. You're right about one thing. Once we defeat the Warstar and Gavin finally gets better, things in my life will return to normal. And my mom will be able to come back and live with us. Maybe with the extra money not having to pay for treatments, I'll be able to go to college too. I don't know. But I'd like to find out."

Gia smiled. "So, wait... does this mean you're okay? You have hope for the future?"

The pink ranger shook her head. "No. But maybe someday, I'll get there. Thanks for talking to me about all this. I genuinely don't know where I'd be without you."

Her friend pulled her off the bench, and both girls started heading for their bikes. "Nowhere, obviously. You'd be totally screwed."

Emma tried to shove her lightly, but Gia took off and reached the bikes first.

"Can't get mad at me if you can't catch me!"


	33. Chapter 33

The girls made it back right on time to take Gavin to his appointment. Gia left to go home, while Emma and Gavin headed to the hospital. Once he was in the door, Emma turned around and started jogging to the Brainfreeze. As soon as she arrived, she found Gia behind the counter with an apron. Immediately, she knew what was going on.

Gia had taken on the job to help her financially.

"Gia, you don't have to-"

"Emma, you need help. You shouldn't have to stress this much about money, especially not when we're still not even adults yet. So, I'm going to help and you can't say anything to convince me otherwise."

"Please, Gia..."

"I know you wouldn't let me work and give you everything I earn, so I'll keep half for myself. I'm getting my license and I'll need to start paying for own gas anyways. But the other half can go to meals. You haven't been eating well lately so that Gavin could stay healthy, so at least with the extra money you can start eating full meals again."

Emma was still slightly upset that her friend was going to do this for her, but she was more grateful than anything.

"I don't even know what to say, Gia. Thank you."

Her best friend pulled her in for a tight hug. "I told you. We'd do anything in our power to help. I can't just sit back and watch you struggle, knowing what you're going through. Next time you need help, just ask."

With that, she went off to greet her first official customer.

Emma went around the back to get on her apron as well, and found Ernie smiling at her. "You totally had something to do with that, didn't you?"

Ernie shrugged. "I don't know."

The pink ranger gave him a hug and whispered in a soft voice. "Thank you."

Afraid she'd become overcome with emotion, she threw on her apron and left before Ernie could say anything. Her boss was left smiling behind her. He felt so bad because he didn't think there was any way for him to help the struggling girl, but when Gia had come in asking for a job, he was only too willing to oblige. It would be harder for his business since more money was coming out of his pocket, but he knew this was the right thing for Emma.

Plus, having both girls working meant the rest of the rangers would be at the Brainfreeze even more frequently, which would be more than enough for him to buy a mansion and a new car.

Just as he turned the corner, he indeed saw the boys of the group walk in the door. He inwardly laughed to himself at how accurate he really was. Their eyes lit up in surprise and delight when they saw Gia was working too. They all knew why she did it without having to ask, and were all happy that Emma was finally accepting help.

Once Gia took their orders and went to go make them, Emma sat down with the boys to tell them about what was going on with Gavin. They assured her that they wouldn't stop her from fighting, as long as she kept her promise not to recklessly endanger herself or the team again. Once that matter was settled, Noah headed to the counter to talk to Gia.

"So, working at the Brainfreeze now?"

Gia smiled. "Thought I'd practice my fro-yo making skills. Never know when I'll need those."

"I'm surprised she is cool with this. She's never been open to us trying to help her financially."

The yellow ranger lowered her voice. "We were in the forest today and she opened up about everything. I think it was a cry for help, and I've been trying to find ways to make this easier on her since Gavin showed up. I thought of the idea as we were coming back, and Ernie took me up on it. Did you know she's been feeling like a hindrance to the team?"

Noah nodded. "We had a conversation about that recently. I tried to assure her that she was the only person on the team who thought of her like that. But once those ideas get into your head, it's hard to get over them. I'm sure if you and I both talked to her about it, she'll start feeling a little bit better about herself, and hopefully more confident."

They were specifically trying to avoid talking about ranger business in front of Ernie, not knowing that he had already figured out their identities. Gia motioned with a nod that they should go to the back so they could talk more openly about it. Noah glanced at Ernie quickly for permission, which he granted. The two didn't know it, but Ernie knew exactly what the teens wanted to discuss.

However, as soon as they closed the door to the back storage room, something smashed into Gia's head. She immediately crumpled to the floor, out cold. By the time Noah had processed what was going on, he too was struck and knocked out.

Vrak smiled as Metal Alice set down the blender she had used to hit the rangers.

"Being able to track them is starting to become fun."


	34. Chapter 34

Emma, Jake, and Troy had seen Noah go off to talk alone with Gia at the counter, but figured they were talking about something private. They were absorbed in their own conversation anyways, so they didn't really give the pair a second thought.

But, when they noticed it had been a half hour without any fro-yo, they looked back over to the counter and noticed they were both missing. The three rangers headed up and asked Ernie where Noah and Gia had gone.

"They went to the back to talk about something, but I would have assumed they'd be out by now."

The rangers all exchanged worried glances as they walked towards the storage room. Emma shook her head. "I better walk in and find Gia dead. There is no other reasonable explanation as to why she'd give me a heart attack like this, with everything else I have going on."

But much to the rangers' dismay... or delight... Noah and Gia were indeed not dead on the floor. They had completely vanished.

Jake looked around, trying to see if he could find anything on where his best friend and girlfriend had gone. Emma's eyes caught on a blender, and she tried to figure out if that was where she had always seen it in the past. Something about it stuck out to her.

Troy called Tensou, asking him to track Noah and Gia's morpher signals. His response only served to worry them more.

"I'm sorry rangers, but it appears their morphing signals have been turned off. However, when we first took you five as rangers, we installed chips into your bloodstream that would allow us to track your vitals, regardless of where you are. According to my readings, Gia and Noah's vital signs are completely normal."

Troy sighed. "Thanks, Tensou. Call us if you get any updates."

At that moment, after staring at the blender for what felt like an eternity, Emma found something she didn't like. She motioned the boys over and pointed to the corner of the blender.

"Does that look anything like blood to you?"

Jake looked even more worried at the thought of the two most important people in his life being taken by force. "What are the chances that is just raspberry or strawberry juice that spilled?"

Emma gave him a look. "Zero. We don't keep our fresh fruits in this storage room where there's no refrigeration."

Troy closed his eyes, trying to stay calm. "Okay. Tensou said they're alive and their vitals are normal. So at least for now, they're fine. But I'm willing to bet my life that Vrak has something to do with this, so I don't want to stall any longer than we need to. Let's get to the Command Center, and talk with Gosei. Maybe he'll have some idea about what our next move should be."

As they prepared to teleport to the Command Center, the pink ranger's eyes widened suddenly.

"Gavin."

She quickly ditched her apron and teleported, but the boys knew she was not headed to the Command Center.

Troy and Jake ran out to tell Ernie that something had come up, and he just nodded. If two of the teens were missing, he knew it was safe to assume this was ranger business.

As soon as they turned back into the storage room, they teleported straight to the hospital. Much to their relief, they found Gavin standing next to Emma, trying to calm her down. "Emma, I'm fine. Nothing has happened."

When he saw the boys arrive, without Gia or Noah, he knew something was up. "What's going on?"

Troy ran over and dragged both siblings out to a supply closet, so they could all teleport out without being seen. Emma finally felt herself relax a little when they arrived safely in the Command Center. Her mind was put at ease knowing Vrak wouldn't be able to find her brother, but she still felt worry for her two teammates who were in danger.

As Jake got Gavin caught up on what was going on, Tensou rolled into the central room. "Rangers, it appears that the blue and yellow ranger's morphers have just been turned on. I tracked the signal to the park. But not only have they been turned back on, they're currently in use."

They all turned to each other questioningly, but needed no further prompting. Emma instructed Gavin to stay put, and in the blink of an eye, she and the two boys had teleported out.

As soon as they arrived at the park, they were greeted by Noah and Gia morphed in their suits. Jake ran up to Noah. "Dude, what happened? Where were you guys? We've been worried sick." Emma was about to do the same to Gia, but she was immediately suspicious when Noah didn't react in any way to Jake's questioning.

At that moment, Metal Alice appeared. When she pressed a button on her tablet, Noah summoned his Bowgun and shot at Jake. The black ranger had just enough time to morph before he took the hit, but still went flying backwards. He landed hard on a park bench, and was slow to get up.

Troy and Emma immediately backed up, not wanting to be victim to the next attack from their friend. They both morphed, sensing the danger of the situation. Troy turned to the robot. "What the hell have you done?"

Vrak appeared next to Metal Alice. "We had a brief conversation with the blue and yellow ranger. It appears they have re-aligned their allegiances."

Emma felt like throwing up. "They would never turn their backs on us. We know you've done something to them."

"I guess the only way to find out is to beat them." As soon as Vrak finished his words, Gia pulled out her power card and summoned rocks that slammed into Troy. He was taken completely by surprise at the speed of the attack, and wound up on his back. The yellow ranger then turned her attention to the pink ranger and summoned her Tiger Claw. Emma looked around and saw Noah head for where Jake had fallen.

Vrak laughed. "Don't stop until they're all dead."


	35. Chapter 35

Even though Gia was not herself and was on a mission to kill her, Emma couldn't bring herself to hurt her best friend. Regardless of what was going on, she refused to attack Gia. She summoned her Phoenix Shot and only used it in an attempt to defend against the yellow ranger's attacks.

Troy looked around and saw Jake engaged in a fierce battle with Noah. It appeared he had the same reservations as Emma, and they were both fighting purely defensively, afraid to hurt their friends. Troy was the leader of the team, and felt the same hesitation to attack either of his teammates, so instead he looked to Metal Alice. He had noticed that Noah only attacked after Metal Alice had done something on her tablet.

If he could destroy her or get his hands on the device, maybe he could reverse whatever was forcing them to act this way. He ran for the robot, and as soon as Vrak saw Troy charge, he teleported away. Vrak was never one to put himself in the line of fire when it wasn't necessary. With two rangers and Metal Alice, he was sure he would never have to see the red, black, or pink ranger every again.

Then when the two reported back, he'd kill them too. For now, he was fully confident that Metal Alice would be able to handle the situation.

Back at the park, Jake was using his Snake Axe to deflect most of Noah's attacks. The strategy was working well for him, but it would do nothing to help in the long run if Jake was unwilling to fight back. He would tire himself out, and Noah would eventually beat him. Jake tried to think of anything he could do to incapacitate Noah without hurting him, but couldn't think of anything. When he saw Troy heading for Metal Alice, the black ranger just resolved to hold out until Troy could stop whatever was going on.

Emma was having much the same dilemma as Jake. She was unwilling to do anything to hurt her friend. But Jake was the stronger fighter between the two, and he was defending against Noah with little to no issues. Emma was not so lucky. Gia was the second most skilled fighter on the team, only behind Troy, but she also wasn't holding back. Since she was using full force, Emma found herself on the back foot.

Emma was completely outmatched in this fight, and inevitably, Gia was able to start pressing her advantage. She hit Emma hard with her weapon, which caused the pink ranger to fall. She groaned in pain, but tried to stand back up as fast as she could. Though she wasn't willing to fight Gia, she still didn't want her friend to kill her either. As soon as Emma had recovered, Gia sent big rocks flying in her direction.

Emma dove and rolled away, right before the rocks crashed into the spot she had just been. The force of it was enough to cause the floor to shake, and the she shuddered. If she hadn't moved on time, she'd be dead. When she turned back to see where Gia was, her friend was already upon her. The yellow ranger had ditched her weapon and was attacking hand-to-hand. Emma ditched the Phoenix Shot, too. She had felt the pain of what Gia's weapon could do to her. She couldn't bring herself to fire at Gia.

Meanwhile, Troy was locked in a sword fight with Metal Alice. They matched completely, blow for blow. Whenever it seemed he had finally surpassed her guard, she would raise her tablet and use it as a shield to deflect Troy's attack. He suddenly got an idea, and used his power card. Troy directed the air straight for Metal Alice's hand, and the tablet was blown straight out of her hand.

Troy didn't waste one second. He jumped straight on her and started attacking before she could recover. Sensing she was fighting a losing battle, Metal Alice threw out one desperate slash before turning around and running for her tablet. Troy tried to run after her and stop her, but her one second head start proved to be one second too long. As soon as the tablet was back in her hand, she teleported out and fled the scene.

Sensing Vrak and Alice were both gone, Noah and Gia disappeared. It appeared Vrak had teleported them out.

Troy turned around to see Jake leaning on his axe, panting heavily. He ran over to see if his friend was okay. Jake powered down, and he had sweat coating his face. "I'm not sure I ever want to do that again."

The two boys then looked around to find Emma, and saw her prone figure laying near a trash can. She looked to be de-morphed, and wasn't moving. Jake and Troy instantly ran to her and tried to shake her awake. She gently stirred and whimpered in pain as they tried to roll her over. Her arm was pressed firmly to her abdomen, so Jake tried to push it away as lightly as he could. They needed to see what kind of damage had been done.

Troy was immensely relieved to see that her injuries were mostly superficial. Thankfully, nothing was broken. He gingerly scooped her up into his arms, and Jake silently teleported the three of them to the Command Center.


	36. Chapter 36

Gavin rushed over as soon as he saw the trio materialize in the main room. He had watched everything on the monitor, and was so worried when he saw Gia attack Emma. Without being able to fight back, Emma's defenses had eventually given out, and Gia had not held back in the beating she laid down. When he saw that his sister was no longer moving and had powered down, his stress levels went off the chart. Tensou had been trying to reassure him that she was still alive and well, because he knew Gavin needed to stay calm if he was going to avoid another seizure.

Unfortunately, Tensou's words did next to nothing to comfort him. Before things could get too dangerous, the rangers made it back inside and seeing her breathing seemed to put Gavin a little more at ease. He took his sister from Troy's arms and ran to the nearest bed, setting her down. She had passed out as soon as Troy lifted her, and was still out when Tensou rolled in to check on her. He ran a scan, and assured the three boys that she was fine. Emma had cracked a couple ribs during their hand-to-hand fight, but there was nothing more serious than that.

It seemed that Emma was hit harder mostly by the emotional toll of seeing Gia try to kill her. It was a hard day for her in general, and her body was not at full strength. He told Gavin that with a little rest, she'd be feeling better, and kept repeating that until Gavin eventually left her alone to sleep.

When he was finally outside, he turned to Troy and Jake. "What in the hell was that? Why did I just watch Emma fight for her life against Gia?"

Jake sat down and put his head in his hands. He was surprised he hadn't completely lost it by now. Seeing his best friend and girlfriend turn on the rangers was extremely hard for him. He was just trying to keep it together. "I don't know, Gavin."

Gosei's eyes lit up, as he entered the conversation. "I ran a scan on the blue and yellow rangers while they were engaged in combat. It appears Vrak has implanted some kind of device into their brains. Once Metal Alice activates the signal from her tablet, they become susceptible to suggestion, and obey any command they're given by either of them. While they are in this altered state, their brains completely block the neurons firing from the temporal lobe. That means they have no memory of who you are, which is why they find it so easy to fight you."

Troy ran his hands through his head in frustration. "This is all my fault. I should have noticed that they had gone missing way sooner. If I had, we might have been able to rescue them and stop this from happening. Or I could have fought harder for that stupid tablet. I could have turned off the signal and gotten them back, but I was too slow."

Jake stood up and laid a hand on Troy's shoulder. "Troy, it's not your fault. It's nobody's but Vrak's. Don't blame yourself. Emma and I were at the Brainfreeze too, and we didn't think anything was wrong either. Stuff like this happens. We just need to focus on what we're going to do to get them back."

Gavin laughed humorlessly. "Yeah? How do you plan to do that, exactly? The whole time during Emma's fight, she didn't lay a single hand on Gia. I know she's not as great of a fighter, but I don't believe Gia was _so_ good that Emma couldn't even get past her guard one time. I think she intentionally chose not to fight back, because she didn't want to hurt her. If she refuses to fight back against someone who is using full force to kill her, she's going to lose every time."

Jake nodded. "I know she wasn't fighting back, because I did the same with Noah. I couldn't bring myself to lay a finger on him. I probably could have beaten him in that fight, but I didn't want to do anything to hurt him."

Troy sighed. "I guess you and Emma will have to switch, then. When they come back, I have to take Metal Alice. I know what to do this time. My wind power was able to knock the device out of her hand. If I focus hard enough, I think I can reverse the direction of that power, and have the tablet come to me instead. At that point, I'll be able to turn off the signal. But until then, you and Emma are going to need to hold off, and I don't know how long that will take. We didn't last all that long just now, and Emma could have been killed if Gia had stayed to finish her off. I say you fight Gia, while Emma fights Noah. Maybe it'll give both of you a better chance."

A voice came from around the corner. "Yeah, I'm not all that fond of the idea that I'll need to hurt Noah either."

As soon as Emma's limping form came into view, Gavin stood up and raced to his big sister. He didn't even realize how worried he had been until he had finally seen, with his own eyes, that she was okay. Emma hugged him back, but his grip was so tight that it was starting to hurt.

"Gavin, I can't breathe."

He immediately let loose and looked to be on the verge of tears. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Emma sat down on the nearest bench, while Troy and Jake walked over to check on her as well. "Nothing is broken, but I still think I'll be sore for... forever." Troy sat next to her, and seeing that she was okay had the same effect on him as it did for Gavin.

He had felt weighed down by the possibility that Emma had been seriously hurt, while Troy had been off doing something else. He felt responsible for his team and wanted to protect them, especially Emma. He couldn't help but feel guilty, and seeing that she was alright did wonders for him. "I'm just glad you're okay."

Jake gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Emma is right about your idea, though. I'm not any more eager to fight against my girlfriend than I was to hurt Noah. Either way, I think both of us are screwed."

Emma looked to Troy. "Is it possible that I can use my powers to deal with the tablet while you take Gia? I know you don't want to hurt her either, but you'll certainly last much longer against her than I did even just playing defense."

Troy shook his head. "I'm honestly not sure. I don't know how I conjured a wind strong enough to knock it out of her hand, and I'm unsure if it can be replicated again. I don't know the extent of your control over your powers either, so it would be a risk trying to get you to summon that level of power coming from behind her too."

The pink ranger shrugged. "I say we give it a try anyways. It's not like we have any better ideas. If I can't do it, then I'll switch out with you. I'm not exactly all that eager for a round two with Gia at the moment. One near death at the hands of my best friend is one too many."

Gavin nodded emphatically. "I like Emma's idea. The further away she stays from evil Gia, the better."

Jake seemed on board, but was still slightly hesitant. "You know Metal Alice isn't going to be any easier of a fight, right? Her sword fighting gave Troy a run for his money, and you don't even have a sword to fight back with."

Emma knew they were right. She did not have the skill to keep up in a blow for blow battle with the robot. "I'll keep her at a distance with my Phoenix Shot. It's not like I have to be close to use my power card anyway. And like I said, if it doesn't work out, then Troy can jump in and take my place."

Troy seemed satisfied that Emma knew what she was in for, so he let the subject drop. He knew that ultimately, the job would get done. Whether it was him or Emma really didn't matter.

Jake turned to his leader. "But seriously Troy, if you hurt my girlfriend, I'm going to kill you. And I'm not going to need a brain chip to do it either."


	37. Chapter 37

Troy and Jake had texted their parents that they would be out for the remainder of the day, and retired to their designated beds in the Command Center. The rangers had no idea when Noah and Gia would be back, or if it would even be soon, so they decided they would take this opportunity to rest.

Emma could see that her brother was still slightly rattled from watching the earlier battle, so she decided to stay with him. After Vrak came for the rangers in the Brianfreeze, she did not want Gavin to leave the Command Center and potentially be taken too, so the siblings elected to stay inside as well. Emma directed him to their small kitchen, which consisted of a table and five chairs, accompanied by a meager fridge and some paper cups. Needless to say, the rangers did not usually spend more time than was necessary inside their cave hideout.

Gavin looked around and saw a deck of cards, and began fiddling with it. He had a lot of nervous energy, not only from the previous battle, but also in anticipation for the one that was coming. While he was shuffling, his hands started shaking so much that the cards started spilling all over the table. Emma looked over and saw her brother had unshed tears in his eyes.

She rushed over to sit across from him and took one of his hands. She gave it a comforting squeeze. "Gavin, I'm okay. Really. It's just a couple of cracked ribs. I should be feeling better within days."

Gavin shook his head. "It's not that. Well I guess it's that a little bit. But, I just hate this, you know? How is any of this fair?"

"Hey, it's going to be-"

"Don't say that, Emma. Please stop pretending that everything is okay. I just watched your best friend, someone you think of as a sister, try to kill you. She beat you so bad and hurt you, and you didn't even put up any kind of fight. How am I supposed to believe that everything is going to be after seeing that? How do I know that you're going to make it home from the next battle? Have you ever thought about what I'll do if this war takes you from me? I'll have no one."

"You can't think like that, Gavin. I will fight like hell every battle to come back to you."

"That is not the story your cracked ribs are telling right now."

Emma sighed. "This is different. I can't hurt her, you know that. I will defend myself if it comes to it, but I won't attack. Against other monsters though, anything goes. And in my heart of hearts, I know Gia won't kill me. I have to believe that, or else it's really going to be over for me. Going into a battle thinking I'm going to lose is dangerous, and Gia taught me that I need to have hope for the best outcome. You should too."

"Emma, it's not that simple. You know it's not that simple. You always tell me not to worry about you, but that's like telling you not to worry about me. It isn't possible. I love you, and I don't want to lose you. You're all I have left."

In that moment, Emma was not seeing her brother Gavin. Instead, she saw a scared little boy who had lost everything. Who had been forced to fight for his life since the day he was born. Her heart ached for him. He always tried to be strong for her, and sometimes she forgot that he was just a fifteen-year old kid.

"That's not true. The rest of the rangers want to help and take care of you. Today, Gia took a job at the Brainfreeze to help both of us deal with what's going on. Jake has been great with being there to take you to and from appointments when I can't. And he doesn't know I know, but Noah has been researching solutions with Tensou during late nights, trying to find a way to get rid of your tumor in case the treatments fail. Troy looks after you at school, and he genuinely cares about how you're doing. They all want to see you be healthy and happy, and they're willing to help.

If you really insist on believing that something is going to happen to me, you'll have them. And maybe she is not here, but you have mom too. She did raise you, after all. If you need her and I can't take care of you anymore, she'll be on the first flight back. She left you here because she knew I'd be able to look after you. But that doesn't mean she doesn't care about or love you."

Gavin kept his eyes on the table as he fidgeted with one of the cards that had fallen out of the deck. "That's just the issue. She left me in your care, and just expected you to be okay. Do you think I haven't noticed what kind of damage that has done to you? You've been exhausted constantly, you never sleep or eat, you work endless hours trying to make money for us to survive, and you also have to be a ranger in your nonexistent downtime? Everything wrong in your life right now is because I got dropped into it."

"Gavin, how many times do I have to tell you that you're not a burden, for you to start believing it? Yeah, life became harder after you showed up, but it also became better. You made it better. Dad is finally gone, and that means I get to make up for all the time I lost with you. I missed you everyday you were gone, and I never stopped. Now that you're here, I've been happier. Maybe it doesn't look like it, but compared to what it was before, the quality of my life has improved significantly since you came. I don't take care of you because I feel obligated to, I do it because I love you. And I would happily do it all again.

You are the reason I keep fighting. When I've fallen on my ass for the hundredth time during a battle, thinking about keeping you safe is what makes me stand up again. So don't worry, because as long as you are here, I am not going anywhere. No monster is going to take me away from you. We are both going to come out happy and healthy from this war."

He finally stopped playing with the cards to look up at his sister. "I need you to promise me that you're going to be safe, and you're going to come back to me. And I need you to mean it."

Emma looked him right in the eyes. "I promise."

At that moment, alarms started going off in the Command Center.


	38. Chapter 38

Troy and Jake were awakened by the alarms blaring, and knew it was time for round two. They went to retrieve Emma and reviewed the plan one more time. When the rangers arrived in the warehouse where the signal came from, they were greeted by Metal Alice and their two friends, except she wasn't holding her tablet. Troy froze upon seeing this, and wondered how Noah and Gia were still under her control.

Before he could think about the matter any further, the robot ran straight at him. He had just enough time to morph and block her lunge with his own sword, and Emma and Jake just barely rolled away. The two rangers looked at each other, unsure of what to do since Metal Alice had engaged Troy.

Gia answered that question as she started sprinting towards Jake. He morphed and summoned his Snake Axe, and just barely got it up in time to parry her Tiger Claw. The yellow ranger continued to jab at him, and Jake was having a bit of trouble keeping pace. Meanwhile, Emma was shooting at Noah with her Phoenix Shot, but not anywhere near as accurately as she could have been.

Everyone knew she was the best shot on the team, so when her attacks kept falling at his feet, it was obvious she was not giving it her all. Noah took advantage of this fact and rushed her. He knew if she couldn't keep range, she would have no way to beat him. He tackled her to the floor and they rolled to a stop near a pile of barrels. Noah drove his knee into her stomach and she wheezed, short of breath. Pain lanced through her cracked ribs, but she tried to block it out. Emma silently apologized for what she was about to do.

The pink ranger planted one foot on his stomach and pushed as hard as she could. It wasn't enough to cause pain, but he flew straight into the barrels and knocked them all over. Troy was distracted by the loud noise and looked over for just one second, and Metal Alice took the opportunity to slash him across the chest. He fell backwards, trying to recover quick enough to counter. He lunged at her suddenly, but she was able to sidestep the strike. They kept going back and forth, neither able to get an advantage.

Emma saw that Noah was still reeling from being thrown into the barrels, and noticed that Troy needed help. Right as she was about to run over, she saw Gia blast Jake out of the corner of her eye. The black ranger fell to the floor, powered down, and could do nothing as Gia advanced on him. Emma charged over and tackled Gia to the floor before she could finish him.

The girls landed on the floor with a thud and immediately began grappling for position. When he saw that Gia had gotten the better of Emma, Jake rushed over to help, but he too was brought to the floor by something behind him. When he was able to gain his bearings, he turned and saw his best friend.

The black ranger was powered down while Noah was still in his ranger suit, and he knew Noah would kill him. In a last ditch attempt, he tried to reach his best friend.

"Noah, please. It's me, Jake. We've been best friends since we were kids, and we're practically brothers. I know that you're still in there somewhere, deep down. I need you. Noah, you've always been so kind to me, always putting up with me and I know the last thing either of us want to do is hurt each other. Being around you has made me into a better man. Don't do this. You can overcome this."

Upon hearing those words, something in Noah's brain completely switched. He looked down and saw he was about to attack his best friend, and immediately stood up in horror. Before he was able to register what he was about to do, he collapsed. His brain had been under extreme duress, having been under Metal Alice's control for so long. Breaking that control had completely exhausted him.

When Jake saw his best friend keel over and fall to the floor, he immediately assumed the worst. He ran over and knelt by Noah, trying to make sure he was still breathing.

On the other side of the warehouse, Gia and Emma were still fighting for position. When Gia kicked Emma and she rolled onto her back, the yellow ranger immediately pounced and wrapped her hands around the pink ranger's neck. Emma tried to break the grip and clawed at Gia's arms, but through the suit, Gia didn't feel anything.

Emma felt herself starting to grow faint as she lost oxygen, and powered down. Upon Emma's face being revealed, Gia's grip loosened slightly and the pink ranger felt a small bit of hope blossom in her chest. That hope was quickly dashed when Gia's hands tightened. Emma saw the corners of her vision going dark, and managed to squeeze out. "It's... not your fault."

Gia felt a jolt in her brain as she looked down and came back to herself. She immediately released her friend and tried to stand, when she felt herself being thrown off aggressively. She looked to see who her attacker was, thinking it was one of the boys, but instead saw Gavin kneeling by his sister.

Tensou had given Gavin a communicator which he could use to not only stay in touch with the rangers, but also teleport. With the fear that Vrak was targeting him, the rangers wanted to be sure that he had the ability to teleport to the Command Center at a moment's notice.

As soon as Gia was shoved off and released her neck, Emma rolled over on all fours and started gasping. She was retching and coughing, trying to suck in as much oxygen as possible. Gia felt guilt shoot through her, looking down at her hands uncomprehendingly, but before she could do anything or even apologize, she collapsed and fell to the floor.

In the midst of his battle with Metal Alice, Troy saw that there was a busy scene in the corner of his eye. When he finally caught enough of a break to see what was going on, he spotted Gia and Noah collapsed on the floor. He saw Jake was tending to the fallen rangers and Emma was breathing heavily. When he saw Gavin trying to soothe her, he knew that this battle couldn't continue any longer.

He disengaged from Metal Alice and ran over to his friends, teleporting them all to the Command Center before anyone could be hurt any further.


	39. Chapter 39

Tensou rolled over from the blue and yellow ranger's beds to report back to Troy.

"I sedated them so they wouldn't wake, and removed their chips. They had already broken Metal Alice's control at least emotionally, so I'm not too worried about any kind of brain damage. We'll just have to wait and see. Though I'm not sure how much they'll remember of their time under her control."

Troy sighed and looked to the floor. Though Jake had reassured him multiple times that this wasn't his fault, he couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt looking at his friends. "Thanks, Tensou. I'm still not even sure how they were able to break free in the first place."

Gosei's eyes lit up. "I believe Metal Alice realized the dangers of the tablet getting into your hands after the first altercation. She must have elected to leave it at their base, thinking it posed less risk. The signal still was able to control the blue and yellow ranger, but it was weakened by the distance, which must have been what allowed the black and pink rangers to get through to them and break the control."

As soon as Gosei finished, Gia began to stir. She tried to put her hand to her head to stop the pounding headache, but found she couldn't move her arm. She looked down and found that her right hand was cuffed to a rail by her bed. "What the hell is this?"

Troy walked over with Tensou, who started examining her pupils to see if she had any unforeseen brain damage. "Do you remember what happened?"

Gia kept pulling her hand against the cuff. "No... What-" She stopped as memories started to hit her all at once. "Emma! Oh god, what have I done?"

By this time, Noah started waking up and found he was restrained in a similar way. Upon Gia's realization of what had happened, she started struggling even harder against her handcuff. "Let me go! I need to see her. I need to make sure she's okay and apologize."

Jake walked into the room at that moment. He had been staying with the Goodall siblings, trying to make sure Emma was okay, but when he heard commotion he made his way over to see what was going on. When he saw Gia was alert and seemingly okay, he rushed over and pulled her into a hug. "Gia, I'm so glad you're back."

The yellow ranger felt the warm arms envelop her, and her worries about Emma were forgotten for just a moment. She hugged him back and dissolved into tears. "Jake... I'm so sorry. I knew what was happening, but I couldn't stop it. I was just watching myself hurt you. Are you okay? I was trying so hard to break out, but I couldn't."

The black ranger gave her a small squeeze. "I'm fine, nothing that I haven't felt before. Don't worry."

Gia kept pulling against her cuff, and everyone decided that the two rangers were really free from control and could be released. Noah stood up and exchanged apologies with Jake as well. He had come so close to watching his best friend die, by his own hands.

While Jake assured him that everything was okay, Gia quickly ran out of the room in search of Emma. She needed to see for herself that she was okay. The last memory Gia had was her choking Emma, and she wouldn't be able to live with herself unless she found out what happened. The moment that Gia broke free of the control, she looked down at her hands and was horrified by what she had almost done.

In a frenzy, she searched every room of the Command Center and came up empty. She became even more frantic and inconsolable until Jake came out to find her. He looked in the room the siblings had been in just moments before, but couldn't find either of them.

Gia panicked even more when she saw the look of confusion cross his face. "Where are they, Jake? Please tell me you know where they are."

"Look, I'm sure they're fine. I was just with them and both of them were alive and well. I don't know where they are, but they couldn't have gone far. Maybe they went for some fresh air and are just outside."

The yellow ranger practically dragged Jake out by the arm to go in search of them.

Meanwhile back at the Goodall house, Gavin was fussing over his sister. "You know, Gia is probably really worried about you. I'm sure she's blaming herself. You should talk to her."

They were in Gavin's bathroom, trying to get her a little cleaned up. Emma looked in the mirror and saw the damage to her neck. There were hand imprints completely around her neck, and the bruising was starting to look really bad. Her neck was an assortment of different purples, blues, and blacks, and she also had multiple marks on her face where she had been struck during their fight.

"Are you kidding? She's going to freak out when she sees what I look like. That's not going to help at all. I think I should hold off on seeing her for a couple days at least until my neck looks slightly better." Gavin sighed and left for a minute, before returning with some ice. He gently walked his big sister to his bed to sit, and slowly placed the ice against her throat.

He really had no idea how to take care of her, but he hoped it would at least help the bruising go down.

"When are you going to stop scaring me like this? I swear, I thought my heart was going to give out while I watched."

Emma turned to him. "Yeah, and that's when you decided to be a genius and teleport into a dangerous battlefield for no reason."

Gavin felt himself heating up slightly. "For no reason? Seeing you being choked to death is plenty enough to warrant that. Plus, you are the one who had Tensou make me a communicator in case of an emergency."

"Yeah, to get yourself away from danger. Not to run towards it! Are you crazy? Any number of things could have happened if Troy hadn't have gotten us out in time. You could have succumbed to the stress and seized, causing permanent brain damage and irreversibly harming your recovery from your tumor. We didn't know what was going on with Gia, either. She could have turned on you and killed you. Or Metal Alice could have seen you and taken you away to Vrak. What then?"

"Anything would have been better than watching your best friend choke the life out of you! I saved your life by tackling her off of you. One more second and you would have been out. You're lucky I came when I did!"

"I'd rather die than put you in harm's way! Why can't you understand that?" Emma tried to calm herself down by taking a deep breath. Neither of them had realized they were yelling. She wasn't really upset with her brother, but knowing what could have happened to him scared her. Especially with Vrak targeting him, she wanted to keep him as far away from any kind of battle as possible.

"I do understand, Emma. I understand that better than anybody because I feel the same way. I am the one who wouldn't be able to live with myself if I had just sat back in the Command Center twiddling my thumbs, while you were being killed in front of my eyes. I'd rather get hurt than watch something happen to you. Maybe you play hero and save everyone else's lives while they sit back and watch you take that risk, but I knew I could help you. I knew I needed to, or else you would die. Do you even understand that, Emma? You could have _died_. How can you be upset with me for saving you when you would have done the exact same thing for me?You're so obsessed with keeping me safe that you've lost yourself."

Overcome with emotion, Gavin dropped the ice onto the bed next to his sister and stormed out.

Emma watched him leave, and dropped her head into her hands.


	40. Chapter 40

Gavin decided that a walk outside would be the best option. He needed to cool off after their argument. The younger sibling hadn't meant to yell at Emma or explode like he had, but he had grown so frustrated with her. She had become so conditioned to prioritizing him that she didn't even realize how close she had come to losing her own life. He was just scared that one day, she really was going to die protecting him, and he needed her to understand that she needed to take care of herself.

As he walked around the neighborhood, he saw two figures materialize in front of him. He freaked out and started to run, but stopped when he heard Gia's voice calling out to him.

"Gavin, wait up!" When he turned around, he saw she was with Jake.

"Gia, I really don't want to talk to you right now. Or see your face."

Jake stepped up defensively next to his girlfriend. "Hey, come on. Tensou removed the chip and she's fine now. Metal Alice can't control her anymore."

"Yeah, well that doesn't change the fact that thirty minutes ago, she almost killed my sister. It's going to take me awhile before I start trusting her again."

Gia felt like this was justified, and knew to expect this from him. "Gavin, please. You don't have to forgive me and I know how close I came to..." She couldn't even say the words; they tasted vile in her mouth. "Look, I just want to apologize to her. I don't expect her forgiveness and certainly don't deserve her trust, but I need her to know that I'm sorry."

Gavin turned his back on her. "Whatever, she's not taking any visitors right now. You should just go."

Gia chased after him and grabbed his arm. As soon as he felt the contact, he whirled around and shoved her. "Did you not hear me? She doesn't want to see you. And I know I definitely don't want to see you either. Leave."

The words cut through Gia, and it felt like someone had reached into her chest and pulled her heart straight out. She knew it wasn't going to be easy, but hearing the words out loud made the reality crash into her.

Jake caught up and grabbed her before she fell to the floor. "What the hell, Gavin? You are way out of line. None of this was even Gia's fault, and you damn well know it."

Gia tugged on his hand and whispered. "It's fine, Jake. Let's just go."

"No. He doesn't get to-"

Gavin cut him off. "You know what, Jake? Screw off. My sister has done so much for you and Gia, without asking for anything in return. She sacrifices so much for you even in battle, to keep you safe. Your girlfriend here almost ended her life and took her away from me. I had to save Emma from her! And you still just blindly side with her? Screw. You."

Before Jake could say anything back, Gia grabbed him and teleported them both out.

Gavin turned with a huff, and made the slow journey back to the house.

When he finally arrived back and opened the door, he headed up the stairs. The walk had only served to rile him up more, but he still recognized he shouldn't have raised his voice when his sister had only been trying to protect him.

He opened the door to his bedroom, and became mildly panicked seeing his sister was not there. Gavin started running around the house, trying to find her but came up with nothing. Finally, he checked the kitchen and found a note on the table.

_With everything that has been going on, I totally forgot I had to work a shift. I don't have anything to pay for your dinner tonight, so I'm going to see if Ernie can pay me today. Please text me to let me know you made it home safe. We'll talk later. _

Gavin read the note one more time and dropped into a nearby chair. He was relieved that nothing sinister had happened to her, but still hated that she was working after everything that had happened. It made him feel even worse for blowing up at her.

At the Brainfreeze, Emma breathed a sigh of relief when she received Gavin's text letting her know he had made it home safe. She desperately wanted to talk with him, but acknowledged talking over dinner would be better than talking while starving. Ernie watched as she got a text, and let out a little breath. She had come in wearing a turtleneck, which she never did, and her face looked worse for wear.

He could tell she had made some sloppy attempts to cover some marks on her face with makeup, but it wasn't exactly subtle. If he looked hard enough, he could see cuts on her cheek and even slight bruising. "Emma, is everything okay?"

And just like that, Emma faked a smile and tried to pretend like her face wasn't a total obvious mess. "I'm fine. Sorry I had to check my phone, it was Gavin." With that, she grabbed a tray with a sundae and rushed out to her customer. Ernie shook his head. He knew something must have happened earlier in the day, and with how exhausted she looked, he knew she most definitely shouldn't be at work.

The customer she was serving smiled and thanked her. Emma gathered up all of the empty trays and bowls, but as she turned around, a woman accidentally knocked into her. She tried to stop herself and flinched in surprise, but her arm that came up instinctively accidentally struck Emma right in the neck.

Pain suddenly shot through her and with a cry, Emma dropped everything she had been carrying in her arms. She mumbled an apology to the woman who had hit her, and bent down to start cleaning up the mess, all while trying not to scream from the aggravated injury.

The woman felt horrible for knocking into the young girl, and leaned down to help her pick up the bowls.

But when she got a better look at the teen, she gasped and dropped everything all over again.

Emma looked up to tell her that it was fine and she could pick everything up, but she froze when she saw the woman's face.

"Mom?"


	41. Chapter 41

Emma sat frozen, completely in shock. Ernie saw what was going on and hurried over.

"Emma, you guys can talk in the back. I'll clean up."

The pink ranger, still dumbfounded, nodded and walked to the storage room in a trance. As soon as Olivia closed the door, she held out her arms to her daughter. Emma was torn between running straight into them, or heading for the hills in the opposite direction. She knew there were adverse feelings to her mother, but she didn't realize how bad until her mother shown up in person.

Emma decided on the latter and took a step back as she shook her head. "Mom, what the hell are you doing here? Does Gavin know?"

Mrs. Goodall deflated at the reaction, but knew it was justified. "I've been trying to get in contact with him for a week, but he's been ignoring my calls and my messages. I would have let you know, but I don't have any way to reach you except through him. A couple months ago, I applied for a job as a nurse at Harwood Medical Center, and they just got back to me letting me know I got it. I tried to tell Gavin, but he wouldn't answer, so I just got on a plane.

I checked the house earlier, but no one was there, so I came here. I asked around the mall to see if anyone knew you or where you might be. This was going to be my last stop before heading back to check the house again. I'm sorry I sprung this on you, I just didn't know what else to do when I couldn't talk to either of you."

Emma was still so shocked she couldn't move. The pain in her neck was throbbing from where her mother had accidentally hit her, though, and without thinking, she reached up her hand to rub it. Olivia saw the movement and immediately stepped forward. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hit you, I didn't even know it was you. I was in such a rush to leave that I didn't see you. Let me take a look."

The pink ranger knew what her mother would find under the turtleneck and desperately protested, but her mother was persistent and pulled down her collar. Her face went completely white with shock. There was severe bruising on her daughter's neck, accompanied by angry hand imprints. She barely forced out. "What- What happened?"

Emma quickly rolled the collar back up and tried to placate her mother. She obviously couldn't tell the truth, but there wasn't really any lie that would sound believable. "It's nothing, Mom. Just drop it."

"Drop it?! Have you seen your neck? Who did this to you? I thought Ben was gone. And even if he was still here, he wouldn't choke you."

"He's gone, don't worry about it. I'll heal soon and it'll be like it never happened."

"No. Who did this to you?"

Emma couldn't take the questioning anymore, and she said the first thing that came to mind. "I got into a fight with someone at school." She regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth, knowing how bad they sounded.

"You're telling me someone at school choked you? And from the looks of it, nearly killed you? What the hell is going on?"

"Mom, can we please talk about this later?" As much as Emma recognized that they needed to talk, she couldn't think clearly. She was still getting over the shock of her mom just turning up out of nowhere, and was telling lies that were digging holes for herself. "I'd love to catch up and all, but I kind of have to finish my shift. Gavin should know you're here, and once you guys have caught up, we can all talk. You should go see him right now."

"No, I'm not leaving until you tell me what is going on. Is someone hurting you? Does anyone-"

Her mother was cut off by a quiet alarm ringing in the back room. Panic set in immediately for Emma, knowing what that sound meant.

"That's the silent alarm. Mom, you have to get out."

"Get out? I'm not leaving you here."

When the Harwood County Mall had first been built, they had paid for silent alarms inside all of the stores. If there was some kind of burglary or robbery attempt, a store owner could activate the silent alarm and alert the authorities without letting the perpetrator know. In the Brainfreeze, the silent alarm alerted the employees in the back room, to let them know that there's danger out front.

Emma knew she had to help, but couldn't do anything when her mother was in the back with her. She started pushing her mother out the back door, trying to keep her safe.

"Mom, I promise we'll talk later. I have to go help and I can't do that if you're here. Please go back to the house. Gavin is there right now, and I'll be there as soon as whatever this is blows over."

Mrs. Goodall kept refusing and Emma had to physically shove her completely out of the doorway. As soon as her mother was outside, she turned and left the back room to peak into the store. When Emma turned the corner, Olivia stuck her foot in the door and stopped it from closing behind her. She quietly re-entered. Her daughter was putting herself in harm's way and she would be damned if anything happened to Emma on her watch. After all that time apart, Mrs. Goodall couldn't abandon her.

In the front of the store, one man with a gun stood at the door while two accomplices went around taking wallets and jewelry from the customers. Once they were finished, one went and emptied Ernie's register, as he tried to diffuse the situation.

"Please, just take the money and go. No one needs to get hurt."

The man with the gun smiled. "You're right. As long as no one moves, we'll be out of your hair."

On the right side of the store, a young child had been separated from his mom. Not understanding the severity of the situation, he tried to make a run for it across the shop to his mother. The gunman was startled by the sudden movement and pointed the gun at the kid, and Emma couldn't stand back and watch anymore.

She hurried out of cover with her hands up, inching slowly towards the man with the gun. She subtly moved herself between the gunman and the boy. "Hey, you can put it down. He's just a kid, he can't do anything to stop you. I know deep down, you don't want his blood on your hands, and I know this isn't who you are. You are a good man who made a bad choice. But you're better than this, and you're not going to shoot him. Just drop the gun and go."

Olivia's heart was in her throat as she watched her daughter come closer to the barrel of a gun, and did everything in her power to withhold a scream. She watched as the man looked back and forth between the kid and her daughter with bated breath. Then, by some kind of miracle, he started lowering the gun. Even he was slightly shocked by the fact he had pointed a gun at a child.

Emma held out her hand gently, encouraging him to give her the gun and leave. Right as the man was about to hand it over, the kid made a run for it to the other side. His mother screamed at him to stay, but it was too late. The man with the gun immediately took the gun and aimed it. Emma knew she couldn't morph, so she did the first thing that came to mind.

She lunged for the man with the gun and drove her shoulder into him to keep him from shooting anyone. They both fell hard to the floor, wrestling for control of the weapon, and eventually the man got hold of it and rolled on top of Emma. He pointed it at her and was about to fire it, and at the last moment, Emma redirected the barrel of the gun back inward. He ended up shooting his own leg and screamed in pain.

The gun clattered to the floor and she kicked it out of the way, before smashing his head to the ground, knocking him out cold. Emma's mother stood half in awe, and half in horror, as her daughter completely subdued a crazed gunman. But before the action could calm, she watched in fear as the two men approached her daughter from behind. Unable to hold it in anymore, she screamed for her daughter.

"Emma, behind you!"

Without hesitation upon hearing her mother's warning, Emma reached for the gun and whirled around just in time to pistol whip the first man. He fell to the floor, reeling from the blow. The distraction was enough to allow the second man to jump onto her though, and he was able to knock the gun from her hand.

He punched her hard in the face and she fell into a table. She had been rocked from the impact, but had just enough awareness to roll out of the way from another strike before it could knock her out, and she grabbed an empty tray from the adjacent table.

As hard as she could, she slammed the tray into the back of the man's head, and he was knocked out cold as well.

The customers all stared at the scene, afraid that if anyone moved, something would happen.

The cops arrived one minute later to the carnage of the Brainfreeze, and Emma panting with a tray clutched in her hands.


	42. Chapter 42

After the burglars had been arrested and the police got everyone's statements, Emma finally got to go home. She was shaken from the fight because she had never had to use her training against actual people before. A gun had been pointed straight at her, and she even indirectly shot someone with it. The entire ordeal had her physically shaking.

Her mother decided to drive her home instead of having Emma walk in that state, and tried everything to get her to talk. Olivia tried to comfort her, ask her questions, even provoke her, but Emma simply sat in silence, trembling.

When they arrived at the house, Emma unlocked the door and headed straight for the dining table. Gavin came downstairs, looking like he needed to talk to her about something, but when he saw Olivia, he stopped in his tracks. "I- Mom?"

Mrs. Goodall rolled in her suitcases behind her. "Hey, Gav. Long story, but I'm back. We probably should talk later though." She nodded her head towards Emma sitting alone at the table and Gavin got the impression something had happened.

He agreed to talk later, but gave her a hug. "I'm glad you're here, mom. I've missed you so much." He then slowly trudged back upstairs, knowing he'd have to save his apology to Emma for later. His curiosity was piqued though, so he stayed by the stairs where he could hear their conversation. Gavin knew eavesdropping was wrong, but he couldn't help himself. He hadn't seen his mom in months, and it had been ten years for Emma. Something had to have happened and he wanted to know what.

Olivia filled a glass of water for her daughter and set it near her as she took the adjacent seat. "Emma, we should talk-"

"No, mom. We shouldn't talk. We shouldn't do anything. I told you to go, for your own safety. You need to listen to me. Did you see how dangerous that was? You could have been hurt or killed!"

"You can't be upset with me for staying when you were the one who charged at the guy with the gun. That was way more dangerous than me just being in the store. What were you thinking? And where in the hell did you learn to fight like that?"

Emma shook her head. "That's not important. Do you not realize? You and me are all Gavin has. I told you to go because I knew I was going to take a risk. If something happened to me, at least he'd have you. Don't you understand that? He can't afford to lose you. So next time, god forbid there is one, you need to listen to me. I know what I'm doing. If I had been shot, there would have been nothing stopping them from coming to raid the supply room and killing you."

"Emma, please... I just-"

"No. In this situation, I was right and you know it. I had it under control and you still put your life in danger. What would have happened if both of us didn't leave the Brainfreeze tonight? That would have been on you, not me. And I'm all for you moving back in. You can be Gavin's mom and help get him to treatments and pay for things so I don't have to anymore. But you don't get to control me. You don't get to choose when to be my mom. You don't get to leave me alone by myself with an abusive father for a decade and then just come back and start trying to mother me.

I've been living by myself for months just fine without a parent, and even before that I survived in worse conditions. You don't get to badger me constantly about bruises on my neck when I clearly ask you to stop, you don't get to tell me what to do, and you certainly don't get to do reckless and irresponsible things, claiming it's because you know better. You lost your right to be my mother the day you walked out on me. So you can be here and you can be Gavin's mom, and we can be civil. But even if you are my mother, you'll never be my mom. That's the difference."

Emma stood up and left, but right before she reached the stairs, she turned back.

"You sent him here so I could take care of him, and I did. I took such great care of him, and most times, at my own expense. I proved I am responsible and capable and I did all that when you couldn't. You were incapable of doing it, so you stuck that responsibility on me. I think the least I deserve is some tiny sliver of your respect. I'm not the scared little girl you left behind. If I ask you to drop a topic, or do something, the least you could do is listen."

With that, she stormed up the stairs. Gavin heard her coming up and left to his room, so she didn't find him snooping. While he listened in to their conversation, he became extremely alarmed by all the talk of danger and guns, so he searched the news to see if something had happened. When he saw the breaking news update about a burglary at the Brainfreeze, where a teenage girl fought off two men and an armed gunman, his alarm only increased.

He knew Emma was not okay, and with his mom dropping in so suddenly, it was too much. Gavin still needed to apologize to her about what had happened earlier, and he wanted to talk to her about everything, but he knew he needed to wait until she cooled down.

So, he walked down to find his mother sitting at the table, miserable. When she heard footsteps, she looked up. "Gavin, how much of that did you hear?"

He just shrugged. "Let's not talk about that."

So he caught his mom up on the months of his life that she had missed and she in turn explained why she was here, and that she was here to stay. Two hours later, she decided to unpack her stuff into the guest bedroom. Gavin figured it was time for him to go as well, so he thought it would be a good time to check on his sister.


	43. Chapter 43

Gavin knocked tentatively on her door to let her know he was coming, and he opened it slowly. He found his sister sitting at her desk, lost in thought. He had to wave his hand in front of her face in order to get her attention.

Emma sighed sadly when she saw her little brother standing there. "Hey, Gavin."

He just looked at her worried, taking a seat on the edge of her bed. They both paused, before opening their mouths at the same time.

"I just wanted to-"

Both of them gave a small laugh, and Gavin motioned for her to go first. "Look, Gav. I just wanted to apologize for what I said earlier and the way I blew up at you. I knew you were just looking out for me and you saved me. I would have done the same for you, and it's hypocritical of me to get upset. I know why you did it, and I'm sorry I made you feel bad for looking out for me."

Gavin shook his head. "I'm sorry too. From the looks of it, Gia had broken out of it before I shoved her off. Everything would have been fine if I hadn't shown up. And I apologize for scaring you and being reckless, and I know why you were worried. I should have respected your wishes and stayed out of it. I'm not sorry that I tried to help you, though. I'll always try to help you whenever I can and I make no apologies for that."

Emma moved over to sit next to Gavin on the bed, and pulled him in for a hug. "I was just scared because out of all the people on this earth, you are the one I can't afford to lose. I love you and I want to protect you, and I want you to know that I really appreciate you coming to save me. Even if it was really incredibly stupid, it was also really brave. Just please try not to do it again."

He laughed. "Deal." He then heard a noise from the guest bedroom and assumed his mother had started unpacking. "This thing with mom..."

His sister let out a heavy breath. "How is she? I kind of exploded at her earlier, I didn't mean to."

"Yeah, I kind of heard."

Emma looked at him. "How much?"

"Everything. I also saw the story on the news."

"I'm sorry. You shouldn't have found out that way. I meant to tell you, but there just wasn't a good time."

"So what you said to mom... Did you mean it?"

The pink ranger rubbed her face. "I don't know. Clearly if I was thinking it enough to say it, a part of me does mean it. But I don't want to cut her out of my life. It was just so sudden and before we could even talk about anything, something else went completely horrible. It was just incredibly bad timing. But I don't want whatever is going on between mom and me to get in between you guys. I know you're close and even if you never said it to me, you missed her and how she could take care of you. Like a mother should."

"Hey, I missed her, but you did a damn good job. We talked, and it doesn't feel any different than the day I left. But I have seen what this whole situation has done to you, and how much it has hurt you. And I know that's her fault for putting it on you. It's something I'll have to work hard to forgive. If I'm feeling this bad about the way things have been going, I can't imagine how hard it is on you seeing her after ten years. Especially after she dumped me on you."

"Don't worry about that. We'll work it out and we'll talk, I promise. I don't want things to be like this forever. At least now she can help out a little and be the mom you need. I was taking care of you, but I wasn't enough. I'm glad that we have an extra pair of hands now. It just sucks having her come in right at the peak of our war with Vrak. I mean, we've already seen the dangers of having her here even during a civilian encounter. She doesn't know I'm a ranger and it has to stay that way, but that means she won't listen to me if there's trouble. I really do know better in that kind of circumstance, but she just doesn't care, and I worry something is going to happen."

Gavin took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "Well, I'll do what I can so you don't have to worry about that. I can try to cover for you or even side with you if she tries to pull anything again. And speaking of, what exactly even happened earlier? I watched the news and read a couple articles, but I don't think I got the whole story."

"Mom ran into me at the Brainfreeze, and we went to talk in the back. Then she started interrogating me about my neck and I didn't have anything believable to tell her. I kept asking her to drop it, but she was worried. And then to pile it on, the silent alarm rang in the back, at which point I told her to leave and get home. I didn't want to put her in danger. I guess when I turned around, she decided to stay. I didn't even realize she was there until later.

When I came out of the back room, I saw a guy with a gun robbing Ernie and the customers. I didn't really know what to do and I froze. I couldn't morph for risk of being seen, and my bag was too far anyways even if I wanted to. But then I saw him wave his gun at a kid and everything was kind of a blur after that. I tried to talk him down and get him to give me the gun. It almost worked, too. But the kid made a run for it and all hell broke loose. The next thing I knew, he was on top of me with the gun and he was going to kill me, but I redirected the gun back on him as fast as I could. I shot him."

Gavin sat quietly as Emma recounted the ordeal she went through. When she met his eyes, he saw tears streaming down her face, and she was trembling.

"I- I shot someone."

She buried her head into his shoulder and cried. He held her tight and tried to comfort her, but he felt helpless. She kept repeating that she shot that man, and Gavin's heart broke. He was sure she wouldn't have shot him if there was any other way, and by the sound of it, she wasn't even the one who pulled the trigger. All she did was redirect the barrel of the gun. But he knew trying to explain that would be pointless.

So for the first time since his arrival, Gavin was the one who held her while she broke down. It was all he could do to hug her and tell her everything would be okay.


	44. Chapter 44

After she had calmed down, the exhaustion of the day took its toll on her. She and Gavin decided skipping school would be the best option. Remembering how everyone reacted once the news of Vrak's hospital attack got out, both of the siblings knew it would be impossible to go to school after everyone found out about the Brainfreeze. They both decided they would try to lay low for a week or so, just until the news wasn't so fresh and shocking, and re-evaluate the situation later.

With that decision out of the way, the siblings fell asleep in Gavin's room. For the first time in what felt like forever, Gavin watched his sister fall right to sleep and with not having to go to school, she would finally be getting a full night of rest. With that comfort, he fell asleep, knowing he'd need it for the coming weeks. With Olivia in town and here to stay, and everything with the attack, it didn't seem like things around the Goodall house would be calming down anytime soon.

The following morning around ten, Emma was woken up by an incessant knocking on the door. She didn't think it was any of her friends since school was in session, but if the knocking was persistent enough to wake her, she knew she should go check.

Gavin was still sleeping and her mother's door was closed, so she opened the front door as quietly as she could manage. She was surprised to see Gia on the other side. She was about to ask her best friend why Gia wasn't in school, but found that her best friend was already entering the house and closing the door behind her. When her eyes landed on Emma's neck, tears filled her eyes and she pulled her best friend in for a hug.

"Emma, I'm so sorry. I tried to stop myself... I just couldn't break the control. I never wanted to hurt you. I know you can't forgive or trust me, and I don't expect you to, but I'll never hurt you again."

Emma returned the hug and tried to soothe her hysterical friend. "Gia, I understand. Like I said to you in the warehouse, it's not your fault. You were being controlled and no one blames you but yourself. You probably don't believe me, but you're forgiven. Don't beat yourself up over this."

Her reaction only made Gia more upset. Emma sighed and walked Gia to her room upstairs so they could talk in a more private area. Gia sat down on the bed, but kept her head down to avoid eye contact.

"Emma, you're allowed to be upset with me. I hurt you, and probably scared you. You should be mad at me. I know you didn't want to see me yesterday and-"

"Who said I didn't want to see you? All I wanted to do was talk to you and make sure you didn't blame yourself. Yeah, I tried to avoid you but that was because I didn't want you to see my neck and feel guilty. It wasn't because I was angry or didn't want to talk."

Gia looked up, a bit more hopeful. "It was Gavin. Jake and I were on our way over so I could talk to you, and we ran into him. He must have been on a walk. He kind of blew up at us and after he said you didn't want to see me, we left. If you needed space, I was going to respect that. But I couldn't keep holding it in and I couldn't sleep thinking about it, so I came over."

"Well, I'm glad you did. Seriously, I'm not upset with you and whatever Gavin said, I'm sure he didn't mean. He was only outside because he was trying to cool off. We had a fight and things got out of hand, so emotions were high. He probably didn't mean to say anything hurtful."

Gia just nodded and wrung her fingers nervously. "Are you okay? Does it hurt?" Gia finally looked into her friend's face and studied it thoroughly for the first time that day, and was taken aback by the swelling in her friend's cheek. It was from when the man punched her in the Brainfreeze.

"Oh god, did I do that?"

Emma gave her a funny look. "Gia... Have you seen the news from last night? Wait, how did you know to come here and not the school?"

"I assumed you wouldn't be at school after the attack from yesterday. I can't imagine you'd want to go and answer questions all day about why you look like someone tried to choke you to death. And no, I didn't see the news. Why? What's going on?"

The pink ranger reached out and grabbed her friend's hand. She gave it a squeeze and told her about what had went down at the Brainfreeze, only leaving out the details of her mother. She didn't want anyone to know until things settled down a little bit.

Gia, of course, went white with panic. She re-checked her friend again, this time looking hard for any other signs of injuries. "What the hell, Emma? You should have called for help. If there's a situation like that, you run away from the gun. Not towards it!"

"My morpher was too far to reach without drawing attention, so I couldn't call you guys. And the silent alarm already went off and the cops were on their way. I would have appreciated it if they had gotten there one minute faster, or the gunman had decided not to try and shoot the little kid, but I knew it would be okay. I took a calculated risk and it paid off. I'm okay Gia, I promise."

The yellow ranger was placated slightly, and instead of continuing to interrogate her, she settled for a hug. "When are you going to stop worrying me? A heart attack related to you is going to kill me long before anything Vrak does."

Emma let out a little laugh. "I'll try to stop." At that moment, Gavin burst into the room in a panic.

He breathed in relief when he saw his sister was fine and just in her room. After what had happened the previous night, he was extra worried about her. When he woke up to an empty bed, he immediately fell into a panic and sprang up to look for her. Once he assured himself Emma was okay, he registered another presence in the room.

"Oh, hey Gia."

Upon seeing Gavin, she remembered his blow-up and lowered her head again. Some of the initial guilt washed back over her. "Hey Gavin. I just came to apologize and make sure Emma was okay, but I can leave if you want."

The boy shook his head. "Don't go. Look... I'm sorry I said what I said yesterday. I didn't mean it and I don't blame you. I was just emotional and scared after what happened and I was wrong to point the finger at you. It wasn't your fault you were being controlled and you couldn't do anything to stop it."

Gia stood up and in a move that surprised everyone, she pulled in the younger boy for a hug. "You were totally justified to blow up at me. I know I have to work to earn your trust back, but I really am sorry. And I promised myself I would never do anything to put Emma in harm's way again, but if some otherworldly demon influence comes over me, I'll be more upset if you don't hurt me and she ends up dying as a result."

Gavin hugged her back with a little smile. "I'll keep that in mind."

The three got five minutes of peace to themselves, talking about the attack the previous night when they heard a soft knock on Emma's door.

It opened slowly and Olivia's voice drifted through. "Gavin, Emma, I'm making breakfast. What do you guys wan-"

When she saw Gia was sitting there, she abruptly stopped. "Oh- I... Hello."

Gia looked in between the stranger and the two siblings and the resemblance was all too apparent. She knew who this woman was. Emma sighed.

"Mom, this is Gia. She's my best friend. Gia, this is my mom."


	45. Chapter 45

Mrs. Goodall approached and gave Gia a small smile. "Hi Gia. I'm making breakfast for the kids and you're welcome to stick around if you'd like."

The yellow ranger gave a hard stare. "So you're the one who dumped Gavin on Emma and basically made her into a mother a decade before she was ready?"

"Gia!" Emma smacked her arm.

Olivia frowned. "It's a valid question. Yes, I did. But I had no intention of hurting either of them. I knew Emma could take care of him and I needed to work full time to pay the hospital bills. It's not like I had much of a choice."

"How about the choice you made to leave Emma behind with an abusive father who had just broken her collarbone? Yeah, maybe Emma told you to leave without her, but she shouldn't have had to make that choice for you. And by no means were you forced to listen to her. You could have snatched her right up and stuck her in the backseat, regardless of what she said. You could have had a big happy family in Paris. Instead, you chose to abandon your daughter. She was hurt for years after you left."

Gavin sat quietly, as tears came to his mother's eyes.

"I know. It's one of my worst mistakes. I wasn't thinking. He was threatening to hurt me and the kids and I was scared."

"Yeah, and how scared do you think Emma felt when you left her behind?"

"Please, Gia. I made a mistake and I won't do it again. Leaving her behind was my biggest regret. All these years, it has been all I can think about."

Gia scoffed. "Your regret does nothing to take back all the times Mr. Goodall hurt her. Just admit it. You were too scared to stay in that damn house and you left like the selfish coward you are. You knew he would continue to hurt Emma, and you did nothing about it because you didn't want him to hurt you too. Mothers are supposed to protect their children. Not just one, but all of them. Turns out your eight-year old daughter was more brave than you could ever be."

With that, Gia stormed out of the room.

Olivia turned to her daughter in shock, and the pink ranger shrugged. "We've been best friends for basically the whole time you were gone. We're not even best friends anymore, we're sisters. Maybe it was harsher than I would have communicated, but she said what needed to be said. We protect each other, and she's seen how much this whole thing has affected me."

"Emma, I'm so sorry. I-"

"Save it, mom. I've come to terms with what happened, and I'm trying to learn how to live with it. And though Gia is not as forgiving, I remember telling you to leave me behind. I remember how hard that decision was for you and me telling you was probably what pushed you over the edge. I knew what needed to be done and I knew how hard it was on you, so I made that decision for you. Whatever happened afterwards is just as much my fault as it is yours. But the only way you can earn any kind of forgiveness is if you prove you're here to stay."

Emma followed Gia out of the room, and Mrs. Goodall looked sadly at her son.

"You got something you need to get off your chest too?"

Gavin got up and hugged his mom. "I think you've heard enough for today. Emma will come around. You heard her, mom. She doesn't blame you, at least not more than she blames herself. And she left the door open for you to be in her life again. She doesn't want to cut you out. And Gia... The girls really love each other, mom. Sometimes it worries me and I hate it because they would die for each other without even blinking. But most times, it's really great. They really care about and look out for each other. That means Gia is going to be upset with you for a while because she's protective. There's nothing much more you can do except work at earning their trust back, so just take it one step at a time."

He gave his mom a small smile and followed the girls out. He had an apology to Jake that needed to be made.

-0-

Once school was out, the siblings and Gia decided to meet up with the rest of the rangers and fill them in on what had happened. It turns out none of the other rangers had watched the news either, having been too exhausted from the day's fight to stay up.

As Emma retold the story, the boys collectively freaked out every time she mentioned the gun. It really did scare them just as much as it had scared her. They were skilled martial arts and could most certainly hold their own in any kind of self-defense situation, but still, the reality of having a gun pointed at one of their own was shocking. Fighting alien threats was fine for them now, but they never thought they'd have to use their training on real people with actual guns.

Noah then took his turn apologizing to her for attacking her the previous day. It was a bit of a sore spot for all the rangers, but just like Jake had, Emma forgave him without hesitation. After another good half hour of the rangers catching up, Emma and Gia stood up abruptly, checking the time.

Gavin looked to both with questioning eyes. "Where are you going?"

Emma squeezed his shoulder. "I have a shift, remember?"

"You're going in to work the day after that place almost got shot up and you had to stop it?" Jake asked. He was not happy with this news.

Gia shrugged. "Ernie has to make his money somehow. And if he just folds up his tent and goes home after one attack, people are going to keep coming. He needs to show them they're not winning by coming after him."

Emma nodded. "Yeah, and my mom kind of quit her job in case you all forgot. Her job nursing at the hospital starts next week. So now I have to support three people instead of two, with only my salary instead of a combined salary with my mom. Needless to say, I have to go."

The yellow ranger grabbed her jacket. "I'm helping out. Hopefully I can make up for a bit of the deficit on her mom's end. It's only a week, we can do it."

As the girls walked off, the boys sat in their chairs shaking their heads.


	46. Chapter 46

With Emma taking school off for the week, she was able to stay and work at Ernie's all day. Gia would then join her as soon as school got out, and they would sit with the boys when they came. Business was a bit slower after news of the attempted robbery, but it seemed Emma had gained herself a little fame.

People who would have normally passed by the door actually stopped and stepped inside to get a look at the girl would had taken down two men and an armed gunman. They usually stared and tried to ask questions, but one healthy glare from Gia sent them packing. Those who weren't as intrusive would end up ordering in hopes of seeing something.

The pink ranger tried to spend as much as time as possible working for two reasons. The first was obvious. They all needed the money. Mrs. Goodall had picked up some odd jobs and even done some babysitting, but it was still rough trying to supplement three on a meager income. The second was that she was avoiding her mother.

Emma wasn't as upset with her and emotions had cooled throughout the week, but she still felt weird being around her. The dynamic felt off to her, and she didn't quite feel ready yet to buddy up with her mom.

Gia waved her hand in front of Emma's face and brought her out of her stupor. "Hey, Em. I'm heading home for the day. Jake's taking me home, want a ride?"

Her friend shook her head. "I'm taking another shift."

The yellow ranger bit her lip. "Emma, it's seven. You haven't eaten and you've been at it all day. I'm sure you can go home and it'll be fine."

Emma gave her a reassuring smile. "I'll be okay, Gia. Ernie lets me snack on some fruit in the back. I'll be home as soon as this shift ends."

Gia nodded and left reluctantly, so she wouldn't keep Jake waiting.

-0-

The cycle was much the same through the week, and Emma was becoming more tired as the days dragged on. By Friday, she was back to her old ways, walking around like a zombie who had just been run over by a truck.

Jake walked in to order a drink. He had soccer practice but it got out early, so he made it before the others. When he walked up, he expected Emma to take his order, but instead found her half asleep at the register.

"Hello... Earth to Emma. Anybody in there?"

He teasingly poked her shoulder, but when she nearly tipped over, Jake actually became worried.

"Dude, you need to go home and sleep."

Emma opened her eyes groggily. "I still have the rest of the day. I can sleep later."

Jake looked over to Ernie. "Hey, I'm taking her home. You mind if I steal her for the rest of the day?"

"Not at all, Jake. I'll pay her for the part of the shift she's completed."

Emma didn't want to leave early so she protested, but Jake dragged her out the door. "Thanks Ernie!"

The older man just shook his head, looking to the drink he had made Jake. Whenever one of the rangers walked in, he always made their usual order without even needing to be asked. Jake had apparently forgotten that when he went to ask Emma to make it and in his haste to leave, he didn't remember to order from Ernie.

He just shrugged his shoulders as he looked at his own creation. "Why not?"

Within the next three minutes, the shake was gone.

-0-

Jake had just finished dragging Emma to his car and dumped her in the passenger seat. Emma strapped on the seat belt reluctantly while Jake made his way to the driver side.

"Jake, I can take care of myself. You didn't need to pull me out like that."

"Em, have you seen yourself lately? If I didn't know any better, I'd have thought you were some monster from one of Noah's video games."

"Okay, that's just rude."

The black ranger squeezed her arm. "Seriously, Emma you need rest. You do not look healthy. When was the last time you even ate a full meal?"

"Gavin had dinner last night. I ate a little with him." Right as she said that, her stomach let out an unceremonious growl.

Jake just gave her a look, and she gave in. "Okay fine, it's been a little over a day. But I was going to eat dinner with Gia once my shift ended."

"You were going to wait another full day? Emma... you can't keep doing this to yourself. I thought you were getting better and asking for help. But it's like instead of taking one step forward, we've taken two steps back."

"Gia is helping me. And this arrangement only has to last until my mom starts work. By this time next week, I'll be happy and looking like a real human instead of one of Noah's video game characters," she tried to laugh it off, but Jake wasn't amused.

"I don't understand why you keep doing this, Em. You're hurting yourself and you don't even care! Seeing you like this hurts the rest of us too."

Emma lowered her head. "You're right. You don't understand. You can't understand until you've been in a position where someone's life is dependent on you putting food on the table. Gavin's sick, and he needs help. I'm useless if I can't do anything to provide for him."

"You're not useless if you decide to work six hours a day instead of eight. And besides, your brother is a big boy, he can take care of himself. I'm sure he could figure out at least one meal without you having to throw your entire life away like this. He appreciates what you're doing and he loves you, but you can't keep going on like this. Of course he needs you to keep working, but he wouldn't want you doing this for him at your own expense. You need to take care of yourself, too. Not just him."

"There is no 'taking care of myself' in this situation, Jake. He is depending on me, and there are not enough dogs in the world for my mom to walk during the day that could equal up to what she was earning before. Not until her new job starts. He's got treatment on Sunday and we need to pay for it. He's my family, I put him before myself. That's how this works."

Jake glanced over and tried to look her in the eyes, but she refused to. "You're doing this because he's your family? Because you're loyal to your family and don't want to let him down? Because you share the same blood as him?"

Emma finally lifted her head to give him a funny look. "Well, yeah. I thought that was pretty obvious. I do it because he's my brother and I love him."

"And your mother... You think she deserves to be sitting at home living an easy life while her kid daughter is working her ass off to provide for three people? Especially after she left you in the dust to suffer by yourself for ten years? You're still taking care of her even though she sure as hell does not deserve it."

"Jake, come on. That's different. She may have done bad things, but that doesn't mean she's a bad person. She's still my mom. Even if she did run off, she spent the first eight years of my life taking care of me, and doing a damn good job. Gavin was sick and it was hard financially, but she still loved me and cared for me. She's my blood... We take care of each other."

"So you take care of Gavin because he's your brother and shares your blood. You take care of your mother because you're loyal to your family and share blood. That's why you're driving yourself crazy working your ass off. Because of blood loyalty? Then what about your father?"

Emma was floored.

"Would you take care of him if he showed up at your door, bleeding? Or hungry?"

The pink ranger actually didn't know the answer to that. "He's my dad, I-"

"Would you take care of him or no? He hit you, scared you, broke you both physically and emotionally... He threatened to hit Gavin on multiple occasions and took his anger out on you and Mrs. Goodall. He hurt you repeatedly until you conditioned yourself to that pain, and you would still care for him and love him?"

"Well, I guess when you put it like that..."

Jake grabbed her face and physically turned it towards him so that she could see the sincerity in his eyes.

"Emma, you can't go on like this. I know you feel like you need to take care of them, especially because they're your blood. But there needs to be a limit. You're out here busting your ass for a mother who didn't love you enough to save you. I'm sorry that's direct and harsh, but it's true. Family isn't defined by blood, it's defined by love. You love your brother and you want to take care of him, and I have immense respect for that. But you need to take care of yourself too. You're no good to anyone if you're unable to function like a normal human."

Emma winced slightly when Jake brought up her mother not loving her. She knew it wasn't true, but it had blossomed into a hidden insecurity over the years. Doubt sometimes filled her, and she thought that maybe her mother left because Emma wasn't good enough to deserve her love.

"That's the whole point of the saying that blood is thicker than water. No matter what, you're supposed to love your family. You can't choose them. They just are who they are."

It appeared Emma wasn't understanding what he was saying, so he decided now would be a good time to reveal something personal about him. He hadn't even told Gia yet. Noah was the only one who knew.

"Emma, my dad walked out on my mom and me when I was five. I barely remember it, but one night he said he was going to the office for a meeting and never came back. I didn't understand it then. But my mom re-married years later, and my step-dad is the one who raised me. He taught me how to kick a soccer ball, and he supported me in my dreams to be a soccer player when my mom thought it was stupid. He is my real dad. Not that asshole who left me behind when I was just a kid.

He never hit me or hurt me physically, and I'm connected to him by my blood. Biologically, he's my dad. But he's not my family. I hate him for what he did to my mom and me, and I didn't understand what happened. I thought something was wrong with me, and that's what made him leave. He wronged me and hurt me, and for a while, I was ruined. I feel like I'm justified to hate him, and say that he's not a part of my family. Don't you?"

Emma nodded without hesitation.

"The same thing applies to you, Emma. Don't take care of your mom because you feel like you have to. Do it because you want to. Your dad clearly didn't care about being your family when he was beating the crap out of you. If blood ties are supposed to be so strong, why did he hurt you repeatedly and why did your mom leave you behind? Family is who you make it, Emma. I'm not saying stop working and stop taking care of them, especially when Gavin hasn't done anything to hurt you. But you're killing yourself trying to do a job your parents should be doing for you. Not only did both of your parents hurt you and leave you behind, but now you're working to provide for your own mother? That is so backwards, and you deserve better.

You just told me that after everything with my dad, it's right to cut him from my family. And after everything your mom and dad did to you, it would feel wrong to care for them. I know you still would because that's just who you are, but you can't hide behind blood ties as an excuse. I know you'd gladly lay down your life for Gia or even anyone on this team. If it meant we would never have to get hurt again, you'd sacrifice your life in a heartbeat. You love us and care about us that much. And you're telling me your father is more your family than Gia or us? Just because you share his genes?"

The pink ranger let out a heavy sigh. "I guess you're right. You guys are more of a family to me than my father ever was. Who I share blood with isn't all that makes up a family, and I shouldn't hurt myself over that."

Jake gave a slight smirk. "I'm always right."

Emma shot him a sideways look. "But seriously, my mom is redeemable. It's been made clear that you and Gia really don't like her or what she did, but it was one mistake. Maybe we're not on the greatest terms right now, but next Monday, she'll be the one working her ass off. And it's not like she's been sitting on the couch watching cartoons this whole time either. She's been trying to get her hands on any job she can to help me take the load off a little. We don't have the greatest relationship right now, but I want to work on it and so does she. Family's not made by blood, but she really is my mom. In my own weird way, I do love her. And I know she loves me too. Give her a chance?"

The black ranger nodded as he turned the car on to finally start heading home. "I'm sure she's not all that bad. After all, you are like the nicest person on this planet. And if your dad turned out to be such an extreme douche, you had to get your sweetness from somewhere. I'll see a side to her I like... eventually. It won't be as easy convincing Gia though."

Emma grumbled under her breath. "You're telling me."

She looked up one more time. A teammate who had completely changed in her eyes. She never would have guessed someone so goofy and easy-going came from a similar place of heartbreak as her.

"What you said about your dad... It's really true? He said he'd go to a meeting and then never came back?"

Jake nodded quietly, his voice barely a whisper. "It sucks."

Emma reached over and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "I know. I'm sorry."

**A/N: A little bonding moment between Emma and Jake. I found his character to be kind of one-dimensional and often too goofy to flippant to take seriously on the show, but I always felt like he had the potential to be mature and serious when it mattered. Hope I did him justice. There will certainly be no father of the year awards going to either of their dads anytime soon. **

**I still am not sure what I want to do about her scene with Troy, but hopefully something comes to me. Let me know if you guys are still enjoying the story. It's been kind of a wild ride and it's already been 46 chapters. Time flew. Thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and follows. It really means the world :)**


	47. Chapter 47

The next couple weeks went by smoothly for the rangers. Vrak and Metal Alice had sent a couple of monsters, but the rangers were able to take them out easily. In their time away from being superheroes, their personal lives were also thriving.

Gia and Jake were able to go on dates more often, and they were closer than ever. Emma's mother had started work and that took a huge load off of her. Since she worked at the hospital, Mrs. Goodall was responsible for handling Gavin's transportation to and from treatment, so that was no longer something she had to worry about.

Emma also took Jake's words to heart, and tried to look after herself a little more. She took less shifts at the Brainfreeze, though still making sure it was enough to keep the family afloat, and used that extra time to sleep or study. Her grades had taken a bit of a hit, but she was a good student. She could graduate in the top 100 of her class if she was able to get it together by the end of the year, which was coming up extremely quickly.

On the days where Emma would be home and the black and yellow rangers would be out on a date, Troy invited Noah over. His parents always worried because since they moved often, he never really settled enough to make friends. For this reason, they were always open to Troy inviting friends over and even offered for Noah to stay the night whenever he wanted. The boys felt much closer.

It felt good to finally have everything looking up for the rangers. For the past few months, it had felt like one thing after another was going wrong. Gavin had arrived and everything turned around for Emma. Then, Gia's mother died in a car accident and the girls got into a nasty fight. There was tons of drama in between, then the rangers were turned against each other were nearly killed. On top of all that, Emma's mother had decided to come home, and everything was thrown into chaos again.

Now it felt almost abnormal that things were going well for the rangers. And while the opportunity lasted, they wanted to enjoy it to the fullest. That was why they had a big birthday planned for Jake. It was his eighteenth and they wanted to celebrate it together. The milestone was big, and they wanted to make sure it was special.

The rangers arranged for the party to be centered around a birthday dinner, so that afternoon, Gia took Jake out to a birthday lunch for just the two of them.

She took a seat across from him and smiled wide. "So, how does it feel to be an adult?"

Jake laughed. "I feel no different from yesterday when I was still a teenager. You and Emma are right on my tail, though. My day has been so good, especially with us being together, and I'm going to organize something extra amazing for you two."

Gia smiled. "It has been a bit of a crazy year, hasn't it? It feels like everything has blown by really fast, but we have been dating for months. It's felt like days at most."

The black ranger reached across and squeezed her hand. "I know. How are you doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"You've been so great with Emma and Gavin. You picked up shifts to help them out financially, and you have been Emma's rock through all of this. Even after everything happened with your mom. So how are you feeling?"

Gia gave him a small smile in hopes of reassuring him. "The first couple days were hard and I clearly did not handle the shock well. But, I'm working through it. It hurts because sometimes, I go home expecting my mom to be waiting with a hug. But then I remember that she's gone. Those are the hardest times. But all I'm trying to do now is be someone she would be proud of. That helps a lot with accepting the loss. The lawsuit my dad and the other families filed against the driver actually got taken to court, and he was found guilty. Something like that also allowed me to come to terms with it quicker, knowing he is behind bars.

I even voluntarily went to go talk to the school counselor about her a couple weeks after the incident happened. She helped me talk through it. I still miss mom a lot and I always wish things could be different. I hated having to lie to her everyday about my bruises, why I missed dinner, and the calls from school about my absence. But I would give anything to have to do that again. My dad has been so strong and great through this, but it's just not the same."

Hearing this made Jake happier than anything else. Above everything, he just wanted Gia to be happy, and that would be enough for him. Knowing she was handling everything so well and getting help when needed was all he could ask for.

"I know what you're saying. But, you should know your mom would be incredibly proud of you. I have to believe she is looking down on us, seeing everything that's happening. She knows about Emma and Gavin, and she sees how you have given up a lot to help them. And she sees us being rangers, protecting the planet. I'm sure she couldn't be happier with who you turned out to be. She raised you to be extraordinary, and that's exactly who you've become."

Gia was touched by the words. "Thanks, Jake. What did you mean when you said you knew what I was saying, though? You have both of your parents at home."

The black ranger let out a breath. "I told Emma about this a couple weeks ago to try and get her to realize something. You deserve to know." His date motioned for him to continue.

"My dad left my mom and me when I was a kid. I was only five, and he said he was going to the office for a meeting. He never came back. It hurt a lot and it was extremely hard on my mom to have him just up and leave. She was now a single mother, trying to struggle through her emotions, while also needing to provide for me. It was a really tough time. But years later, she married my dad. The guy I consider to be my real dad.

He's taken care of me, and been a better father than my biological dad ever was. But the feelings of abandonment stay with me. My dad and I are super close now and I wouldn't have it any other way, but like you said, it's just not the same. Knowing my biological father and I could have had this kind of relationship and he chose to leave me behind, hurts even to this day. If he had just stayed, my life would have turned out different and I'll never be able to stop thinking about that."

The yellow ranger was shocked by the news. "Jake, I don't know what to say. I'm sorry. You deserve so much better."

He just shrugged it off. "Nah, everything ended up alright. My dad and I are really tight, and he's the one who inspired me to become a professional soccer player. He does everything a dad should, and I got really lucky with him."

"First my best friend, now my boyfriend. I am giving my dad the biggest hug ever when I get home."

Jake laughed. "Yeah, you kind of won the dad lottery."

At that moment, the waitress came to take their empty dishes away and Gia handed over her card for the bill. Jake protested, but Gia pointed out that it was his birthday and that she should get to treat him at least once.

Once Gia's card was finally returned to her, they headed out to the park and sat on a bench. It was a beautiful day and the kids were outside playing. Gia pulled out a card. "So, I know we said we would do gifts at dinner with the rest of the group, but I did want to give you a little something while we had some time to ourselves."

She handed it over and Jake read it with tears in his eyes. "I love it. Thank you so much. You really mean the world to me."

Gia then handed over a bag. "Open it!"

He did as he was told and pulled out a stuffed animal. Jake instantly recognized it as a snake. "Where did you find a snake stuffy that was actually cute? I thought they were all ugly and scary."

His girlfriend laughed. "You would be surprised. I was online shopping and found a cute northern hairy-nosed wombat. I didn't even know those existed."

He reached further into the bag and pulled out a tiger and a shark. It brought out a large smile.

"It is to represent Noah and me. The stuffed animals will always be with you in the bed, and Noah and I will always be with you through life. I know you're a whole adult now and stuffed animals probably are not your thing, but I thought it would be cute."

Jake laughed and leaned over for a hug.

"I love it. You're the best."

They decided to spend a couple more hours together in the park before heading over to his birthday dinner.


	48. Chapter 48

Ernie had just finished putting the last second decorations up for the rangers. He had agreed to close down for the rest of the day and let the rangers take over his store once they came from dinner to eat some dessert. Emma had been nothing but helpful to him, and she wanted to do something nice. Gia had even started taking shifts, and Jake was always here to support the girls or even drive them home.

Noah, Troy, and Gavin came in most days to hang out and were always kind and polite customers. The group was his favorite group of customers, and they never gave him any reason to dislike them. On top of all that, they were the power rangers. Their identities were secret and they never received any credit or thanks for consistently putting their lives on the line everyday. He figured he could close for a couple hours on one night and let them do something special.

Gavin and the rangers all walked in, laughing happily, only to see the Brainfreeze was decorated for a birthday party and otherwise completely empty. Emma gave Ernie a questioning look.

"For everything you guys have done for me in the past, it was the least I could do. Happy birthday, Jake."

He smiled. "Thanks Ernie. This is amazing."

Ernie returned the smile and left to the back.

The rangers settled in and Emma made everyone's orders. She brought everything over and laughed. "On the house."

Noah looked at her. "Are you even allowed to give us stuff on the house?"

"Nope! But I'm sure Ernie wouldn't mind one night. I can always work it off anyways. We all deserve at least one night of fun and freedom."

Gia laughed. "It's alright. He won't be mad. But if he does throw a fit, I'll share the blame."

Troy pulled out a black bag with red wrapping paper. "It's time for gifts! As I am the red ranger, obviously the coolest one, I'll be going first."

The rest of the rangers stuck out their tongues as Jake tore into the gift. "Dude, this is awesome!" He pulled out a video game he had been wanting for months. Troy smiled.

"I know you've been meaning to buy and play it, but life has been crazy these past few months. I thought you'd like it."

Jake smiled and tucked it away. "I'm so playing that when I get home tonight."

Emma and Gavin went next. They really did not have much money to throw around, so the two decided to make it a joint gift. Jake pulled out a photo album and flipped through it. A soft smile came to his face when he saw all the pictures. There were pictures of the team, pictures of him with Gia, and they were all memories he wouldn't ever want to forget.

"Thank you so much. You guys seriously didn't have to do this. I know how long it must have taken."

Gavin put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm definitely not the best with a camera, but I tried to help out with what I could. You've been pretty great with helping Emma out and taking care of me. I could never forget everything you've done for me, and we wanted to do something special."

The pink ranger walked over and gave him a hug. "Yeah, you've really stepped up in a big way. Especially for me the last few months. I wouldn't be where I am right now if it hadn't been for your help. So, thank you."

Noah pulled out his gift next and Jake saw the box was tiny. Extremely curious as to what it was, he ripped through the small wrapping paper and opened the box, pulling out a small watch-like device.

"I know how much you like soccer and staying active, so I made this fitness tracker for you."

Jake had always wanted one, and he eagerly scrambled to get it on. When he tried to run around the store and see what happened, he frowned when all he saw was a little emblem in the center. Nothing had happened.

Noah laughed and motioned for him to come back over. He then pressed on the emblem, and a holograph projection erupted out of the small watch. From there, Jake could see on the screen the amount of calories he burned, steps he had taken, recommend fitness intake, and even a whole diet plan. He saw options to customize the tracker to be daily, weekly, monthly, or record everything. It was the most high-tech thing he had ever seen.

"Noah, is this a freaking holograph? How did you even make this?"

"It's a little project I've been working on for the past eight months." Jake's jaw dropped. "I had a good amount of it figured it out and engineered, but I was having trouble getting the screen to project out of the watch. So I asked for Tensou's help and together, we were able to make all this. But you haven't gotten to the cool part yet."

Jake's mouth continued to hang open. "This isn't the cool part?"

His best friend swiped at the air, which looked ridiculous, but the holographic screen changed. A whole new menu came up. He then reached down into the bag and pulled out a soccer ball. It looked ordinary, but in reality, was far from it.

"I know we're inside, but just give it a light kick."

Jake did as he was told and instantly, stats started showing up on the screen. It showed him how fast he kicked it, how much force he applied, and recommended different angles to hit the ball that would lead to better results. There was even an image with a soccer ball near the bottom of the screen, and when he tapped it, the picture grew into a 3D projection.

He slid the image around and the ball rotated with his finger's movement. There was a slight red circle where he had kicked the ball, and it showed the amount of spin he had put on it, along with different ways he could kick it to optimize the trajectory of the ball.

"Noah... This is wicked. Seriously, I didn't think anything like this could even exist within the next two hundred years! Let alone, be in my hands."

Noah smiled. "I guess you didn't give me enough credit. Anyways, the ball is one I made specifically to help you make the most out of your practice. I rigged it up with sensors, and it's supposed to help you improve your kick. It tells you where you hit the ball, how hard you hit it, and ways you could make your kicks better. Honestly, a lot of the actual soccer stuff kind of went over my head, but I watched a bunch of professionals talking about their practice and tried to model it after what I thought would be most efficient."

Jake ran over and engulfed the blue ranger in a bear hug. "This is actually the coolest thing I've ever seen. I can't believe you spent most of the year working on this! I don't even know what to say. Seriously, I am never taking this thing off."

Noah returned the hug tight. "You've always been there for me. You're the best soccer player in our school and I'm just the nerd but you always stuck by me. We're brothers and I haven't been able to repay you for everything you've done for me. This is the least I could do."

Gia pulled out her little bag. "Alright, looks like we saved the best for last."

Troy smirked. "No offense, Gia. But I don't think anything... ever... will top Noah's gift."

She laughed. "Yeah, you're probably right. I should gone before Noah because now my gift looks lame."

Jake took the bag. "I'm sure I'll love it, Gia."

Inside was a small box. He opened it and gasped.

"Gia! What...?"

She pulled out the necklace. It was a gold chain with black accents on the locket. She opened the locket to show Jake a picture of them on their first date. The yellow ranger then put it around his neck.

"I saw this in a store three months ago when I was out with Emma. I started saving as soon as I could and I was finally able to get it yesterday."

Jake pulled her in for a kiss. "This must have cost a fortune! You shouldn't have... I love it so much. Thank you."

"Well, when I suggested I work to help out Emma, I knew she wouldn't let me give my whole salary to her. So I offered to keep half for myself, and that's where the work went. Don't worry about the cost. It doesn't matter as long as you like it."

Jake smiled and connected his phone to Ernie's speakers. "We're about to party it up." He turned on music and dragged Gia out onto the floor. She refused to dance, because her tough girl image was on the line.

But Jake's dancing was horrible and he looked like a complete and utter fool. The longer she stood there with him, the less she could resist. Finally, she gave in and started dancing with him, as the others piled onto the floor to join them. Even Troy let loose and had fun.

Gavin chose to stay in the booth. He felt close with the team, but not enough to join in on this and make himself look like a fool. Plus, he usually tried to avoid prolonged bouts of physical strain, and dancing as crazily as them would certainly not be encouraged.

He watched on and saw Emma smiling. For the first time since he had shown up, it looked like she was genuinely happy. There was nothing weighing her down, and maybe this was when things were going to start turning around.


	49. Chapter 49

Emma woke up to find her mother cooking breakfast in the kitchen. After everything that had happened, Emma was going to start going back to school. She just hoped the stares wouldn't be so bad this time around.

Her mom gave her a small smile. Their relationship would still take a lot of work, but both were willing to put in that work. Olivia passed the plate to Emma and squeezed her shoulder.

"I'm going to go wake up Gavin. Wouldn't want you guys to be late on the first day back."

Emma nodded and texted Gia to walk with her and Gavin.

_I'm thirty seconds out. I make no promises to be civil if demon mom is there._

The pink ranger rolled her eyes.

_She's here, but we're working on our relationship right now. You don't have to be a protective mama bear anymore._

As Emma put her phone down, she heard a knock on the door. When she opened it, she hugged her best friend.

"Don't attack her, she's waking up Gavin. She made my breakfast and she's really trying."

Right then, Mrs. Goodall came downstairs dragging a tired Gavin. Celebrations of Jake's birthday went late into the night since Ernie had given them his space. They wanted to live it up while they could, and milked every last minute.

Gavin felt that everything was starting to turn around for the rangers and things were going to start being normal again. The rest of the team shared that feeling as well and while they could enjoy this warm feeling of safety, they fully intended to. This meant Gavin had stayed up much longer than he should have considering his exhaustion and condition, and he was less than amused when his mother came to wake him up.

Mrs. Goodall smiled hesitantly. "Hello, Gia. I made breakfast... Feel free to help yourself."

"I'm not hungry."

Gia felt a slight nudge from her best friend and sighed. "I'll take one pancake, thanks."

The yellow ranger joined the younger Goodall at the breakfast table and ate while Emma joined her mother in the living room, waiting for them to finish.

"You seem a lot happier."

Emma looked up at her mother. "I am. It was... hard dealing with everything. Not having to worry about Gavin starving through the night and missing dinner has helped relieve a lot of my stress. I guess I was hesitant that you were back and the circumstances were less than ideal, but you've really been great. Thanks."

Mrs. Goodall couldn't meet her daughter'e eyes. "I know I've said it a thousand times before, but I really am sorry. I didn't mean for this to affect you so much. I knew it would be hard and I still put this all on you, and that's one of my greatest regrets. If I knew how much it hurt you, I would have come back so much sooner."

"Yeah, well, not everything was bad. To be completely honest with you, I still resent you a little. And I think a part of me always will." Olivia's face fell, but knew it was justified. "But... Gavin and I have really grown. He's not the little boy I used to protect from Dad. He's so strong, and through everything, he's been by my side. I'm grateful we got the opportunity to be siblings again. I was so hurt and broken after everything Dad put me through, and he really helped heal me."

"I'm glad you and your brother have picked up where you left off. I knew you would take care of him, no matter what. It probably doesn't mean anything coming from me, but I'm really proud of you. I wouldn't have been able to manage all the hours you worked, taking Gavin to the hospital, having to solely provide for both of you, and school. No thanks to me, but you have grown into a woman I'm proud to call my daughter. I haven't been around for the last decade, but you handled everything with such grace... I'm just proud of you."

Emma squeezed her mother's hand, but Mrs. Goodall pulled her in for a hug. "I'm so sorry, Emma."

The pink ranger was taken by surprise when her mother hugged her, but the shock only heightened when her mother started crying. Emma returned the hug.

Gavin walked in at the moment and saw he was interrupting a moment. But his mother saw him and stood up.

"You kids should probably be getting to school." Gia also came into the room, grabbing her backpack, and saw Mrs. Goodall with tears in her eyes.

She turned and walked out the front door, calling behind her that they were going to be late. The Goodall siblings realized she was right and scrambled to get their bags and follow.

When they were outside, Gavin stayed back so Gia and Emma could talk.

"Why was she crying?"

Emma looped an arm around her friend's shoulder. "She's really sorry about everything. We were just talking and things got emotional. But it was a good kind of emotional."

"I guess I should really stop hating her, huh?"

"You can hate her if you want, but she is trying to make amends. And I really don't want to hold a grudge against her. I just want to move on. She's proven she really cares, and having her take some of the responsibility has made me feel so much lighter. I don't want things to be rocky anymore."

Gia sighed. "Yeah, I get it. You and your mom should mend things while she's still around."

The yellow ranger felt herself being swallowed in a hug. "I'm really sorry, Gia. It's probably hard to see everything going on with my mom."

Gia then felt another presence behind her, joining the group hug.

"You guys totally forgot I was here, didn't you?"

Emma laughed as she let go. "Honest answer? Yeah."

Gavin stuck out his tongue. "Ignoring your little brother, your flesh and blood, for your friend. Whatever, I see how it is."

Gia just laughed. "We all know she loves me more. She even gives me amazing hugs."

"Hey! I hugged you too, doesn't mean I love you."

Gia poked him in the stomach and he squealed. Gavin started running away, not wanting to be tickled again.

The yellow ranger chased after him.

Emma just laughed to herself. She did worry a little that the running would put strain on his body and called out to the pair.

"Not too fast!"

Gavin slowed down, but not enough to forfeit his lead over Gia. She also slowed down along with him to keep it fair.

"Yes, mom."

Emma rolled her eyes and when they finally arrived to school, she saw Gia chasing him all the way to his first class.


End file.
